A replye to an ansvvere made of M. Doctor VVhitgifte Against the admonition to the Parliament. By T.C.

To the next section beginning at the. 64. page / and holding on vntill the. 77. pages.

OF these offices some thing hath bene spoken before / where it hath bene pro∣ued out of the words of Christ / that neither the names / nor offices of Arch∣bishop / or Archdeacons doe agree to the ministerie of the gospell. Nowe as M. Doctor bestoweth great cost heere / and trauaile in digging about them / and laying (as it were) newe earthe to their rootes / that they being halfe deade / if it were possible / myghte be recouered and quickened againe / so I (because these trees mount vp so highe / and spreade their boughes and armes so brode / that for the colde shade of them nothing can growe / and thriue by them) will before I come to answere these things that are heere alledged / set downe certaine reasons (as it were instruments) to take away the superfluous loppe and spread of these immoderate offices.

And for the names first / I desire the reader that we be not thought studi∣ous of contention / because we striue about the name of Archbyshop. &c. for thys is not to striue about words / vnles it be counted a strife of wordes / which is ta∣ken for the maintenance of the worde of God / as it hathe before appeared out of the Euangelists. Then it must be remembred whych Aristotle sayeth very well in hys Elenches / that ta onomata ton pragmaton mimemata esti: whych is / that names are imitations / or as it were expres images of the things whereof they are names / and doe for the most part bring to hym that heareth them / knowledge of the things that are signified by them. Howsoeuer the thing be it selfe / yet of∣tentimes it is supposed to be as the name pretendeth / and therevpon followeth / that a man may be easely deceiued / when the names doe not answer to the things wherof they are names. There may be / I graunte / a freer and more licentious vse of names / but that licence is more tollerable in any thing / rather then in mat∣ters of the church and saluation. And if there be some cases / wherin names that are not so proper / may be borne with / yet are there also whych are intollerable. As who can abide that a minister of the gospell / should be called by the name of a Leuite / or sacrificer / onles it be he whych woulde not care muche / if the remem∣brance of the death / and resurrection of our sauioure Christ were plucked out of hys minde? Againe / it is vnlawfull for any man to take vpon him those titles which are proper to our sauioure Christ: but the title of Archbyshop is only pro∣per to our sauioure Christe / therefore no man may take that vnto hym. That it is proper to oure sauioure Christe / appeareth by that whych S. Peter sayeth / where he calleth him archipoimena: whych is archshepheard or archbishop / for bishop & shepheard are all one. And in the Hebrues where he is called the great shepheard of the sheepe / and in the Actes / and * Hebrues / archleader of lyfe and

of saluation / whych titles are neuer found to be giuen vnto any / but vnto our sa∣uioure Christe / and are proper titles of hys mediation / and therefore can not be wythout bolde presumption applied vnto any mortall man.

And it any man will reply and say / that it is not sayd that our sauior Christ is only archbishop. I answer that he is not only sayd the head / and yet notwith∣standing there is no more heads of the churche but he. And if it be further sayde that these archbyshops are but vnder / and as it were subordinate archbyshops / I say that a man may as wel say that men may be also vnder heads of y^e church / whych is the same whych is alledged for the pope. Whych thing is not only true in those wordes whych doe signify / and set vnlawfull things before our eyes / but euen in those names also whych hauing no corruption in their owne nature / yet throughe the corrupt vse of men / haue as it were gotten suche a tacke of that cor∣ruption / that the vse of them can not be wythout offence.

In the primitiue church / the name of a Pope was honest / and was all one wyth the name of a good pastor / but nowe by the ambition of the man of Rome / it is so defiled / that euery good man shaketh at the very mention of it.

The name of a Tyranne / was first honourable / and the same with a king / and yet through cruelty / and vniust rule of certaine / it is become now so hatefull / that no vpright and iust dealing Prince / none that gouerneth wyth equitye / and to the commodity of hys subiects / would beare to be called Tyranne: wherby it may appeare / that it is not for nought that we do stande of these names. Nowe if the names ought to be odious / being both horribly abused / and also forbidden by our sauioure Christe / the thyngs them selues must be in greater hatred / the vn∣lawfulnes wherof may thus appeare.

First of all / the ministery is by the word of God / and heauenly / and not left to the will of men to deuise at their pleasure / as appeareth by that whych is no∣ted of s. Iohn / wher the Phariseis cōming to s. Iohn Baptist / after that he had denied to be either Christ / or Elias / or another Prophet / conclude / if y^u be neither Christ / nor Elias / nor of the Prophets / why baptisest thou? whych had bene no good argument / if s. Iohn might haue bene of some other function / then of those whych were ordinarie in the churche / and instituted of God. And therefore S. Iohn to establish his singular and extraordinary function / alledgeth the word of God / wherby appeareth / that as it was not lawfull to bring in any strange doc∣trine / so was it not lawfull to teache the true doctrine / vnder the name of any o∣ther function then was instituted by God.

Let the whole practise of the churche vnder the lawe / be loked vpon / and it shall not be founde that any other Ecclesiasticall ministery was appoynted / then those orders of highe priest / and priests / and Leuites. &c. whych were appoynted by the law of God / & if there were any raised extraordinarily / the same had their calling confirmed from heauen / either by signes or miracles / or by plaine & cleare testimonies of the mouthe of God / or by extraordinarye exciting and mouings of the spirite of God. So that it appeareth that the ministerie of the gospell / and the functions thereof / ought to be from heauen / and of God / and not inuented by the braine of men: from heauen / I say / and heauenly / because althoughe it be execu∣ted by earthly men / & the ministers also are chosen by men like vnto themselues / yet because it is done by the word and institution of God / that hath not only or∣dained that the word should be preached / but hathe ordained also in what order / and by whome it should be preached / it may well be accounted to come from hea∣uen / and from God.

Seeing therefore / that these functions of the Archbishop and Archdeacon are not in the word of God / it foloweth that they are of the earth / & so can do no good / but much harme in the church. And if any man will say y^e we do the church great iniurye / because we doe tie her to a certaine nomber of orders of ministers /

as it were to a stake / so that she may not deuise new functions / I say that bothe the churche and Christ doth accuse him againe. Christ estemeth him selfe to haue iniurie / because that by thys meanes he is imagined not to haue bene careful / and prouident enough for hys church / in that he hath left the ministerie / wherein doth consist the life of the church (being that wherby it is begottē) so raw and vnper∣fect / y^t by permitting of it to the ordering of men / there is a great danger of error / whych he might haue set without all daunger / by a word or two speaking.

The churche of the other side riseth against hym / for that he maketh Christ les carefull for her / then he was for that vnder the lawe. For tell me in the whole volume of the Testament is there any kinde or degre of ministerie / wherof God is not the certen and expres author? was there euer any man (I except Iero∣boam and suche prophane men) either so holy / or so wise / or of suche great know∣ledge / that euer did so muche as dreame of instituting of a newe ministerie? After the long wandring of the Arke in the wildernesse / when it came to be placed in Ierusalem / tell me if any besides the Leuites and Priestes / the ordinarie mini∣sters / and the Prophets whych were immediatly stirred vp of God / were found to haue ordained any office or title / whych was not commaunded / or whether there was at any time any thing added / or enioyned to those offices of priesthode and Leuiteship / whych was not by the lawe prescribed.

All men knowe that the Arke of Noah / was a figure of the church. Noah was both a wise and a godly man / yet what doth the Lord leaue to his wisdom / when as he appoynteth the matter / the forme / the length / the bredth / the heigth / the woode / the kinde and sorte of woode.

In the tabernacle the church is yet more expressedly shewed forth / Moses that was the ouerseer of the worke / was a wise and a godly man / the artificers that wroughte it / Bezalael / and Aholiab / most cunning workemen / and yet ob∣serue / howe the Lorde leaueth nothing to their will / but telleth not onlye of the boordes / of the curtaines / of the apparell / but also of the barres / of the rings / of the strings / of the hookes / of the besomes / of the snuffers / and of the thyngs / the matter / and the forme.

Let vs come to the temple / whych as it was more neare the time of Christ / so it dothe more liuely expres the churche of God / whych nowe is. Salomon the wisest man that euer was or shall be / dothe nothing in it / neyther for the temple nor for the vesselles of the temple / nor for the beautie of it / but according to the forme that was enioyned hym / as appeareth in the Kings / and Chronicles. And in the restoring of that temple / Ezechiel is witnes / howe the Angell by the com∣maundement of God doth parte by parte / appoynt all to be done bothe in the tem∣ple and in the furniture thereof.

Nowe if the holy ghoste in Figures and Tropes dothe so carefully / and as a man may speake / curiously comprehende all things: in the truthe it selfe / howe muche more is it to be thought that he hath performed this? If in the shadowes / howe muche more in the body / if he haue done this in earthly things / and which are pearished / how is it to be thought that he hath not performed it in heauenly / and those whych abide for euer? And then tell me what are those times / of which it was sayd / the Messias when he commeth / will tell vs all? Is it a like thyng that he whych did not only appoynt the temple and the tabernacle / but the orna∣ments of them / woulde not only neglecte the ornamentes of the churche / but also that / wythout the whych (as we are borne in hand) it can not long stande? shall we thinke that he which remembred the barres there / hathe forgotten the pillers heere? or he that there remembred the pinnes / did heere forget the master buil∣ders? shoulde he there remember the besomes / and heere forget Archbyshops / if any had bene needefull? there make mention of the snuffers to purge the lights / and heere passe by the lightes them selues?

And to conclude / that he shoulde make mention there of the moates / and heere say nothing of the beames? there recken vp the gnattes / heere keepe silence of the Camels? what is this else / but that which Aristotle sayth / ta mikra horan kai ta megala paroran: that is / to looke to small things / and not to looke to great / which if it can not fall into the Lorde / let it be a shame to say that the cheefe piller and vpholder of the churche / is not expressed in the scripture / nor can not bee con∣cluded of it.

Moreouer those ministeries without the which the churche is fully buil∣ded / and brought to perfection and complete vnitie / are not to be retayned in the churche: but with out the ministeries of Archbishop. &c. the churche maye bee fully builded and broughte to perfection / therefore these ministeries are not to be retayned.

And that without these ministeries the Churche may be complete / it ap∣peareth by that which is in the Ephesians / where it is sayde / that Christe gaue some Apostles / some Prophetes / some Euangelistes / some pastors and Doc∣tors / to the restoring of the sayntes vnto the worke of the ministerie / vntill wee all come to the vnitie of fayth / and of the knowledge of the sonne of God / and vn∣to a perfect man.

The learned wryters haue thus reasoned agaynste the Pope: that for so muche as Apostles / Prophetes. &c. are sufficient for the building of the churche / therefore there ought to be no Pope. The argument and necessitie of the conclu∣sion is as strong agaynst the Archbishoppe / and all one. For by the same reason that the Pope is cast away as a superfluous thing / for that these offyces are able to make perfect the Churche / is the Archbishoppe likewise throwne out of the Churche / as a knobbe or some lumpe of fleshe / which being no member of the bo∣dy / doth both burden it and disfigure it. And as they say that God gaue no Pope to his church / therefore the Pope can doe no good / so we may well say / God gaue no Archbishop to his church / therefore the Archbishop can do no good.

Neyther dyd God geue any archdeacon to his church / therefore he can not profite the church. But it will be sayde that this argument followeth not / be∣cause no mention is made heere of the deacon or of the elder / which notwithstan∣ding are bothe necessarye in the churche / and therefore that there are functions profitable in the church / whereof no mention is made heere. But how easely doe all men know / that the Apostle speaketh of those functions heere only / which are conuersant in the worde / and haue to doe with the preaching thereof: and there∣fore made heere no mention of the deacon or elder. It is sayde agayne / that in the Epistle to the Corinth. S. Paule speaketh only of Apostles / Prophetes / and Doctors / leauing out Euangelistes and pastors / and yet Euangelistes and pa∣stors necessary / and so although archbishops are not spoken of in the place to the Ephesians / yet they may not be therfore shut out as vnnecessary. But they that say so / should haue considered that the diuersitie of the matter which the Apostle handleth in these two places / bred a diuers kinde of speche. For in the Epistle to the Corinthians / going aboute to condemne the ambition of men / which will thrust them selues into other mens callings / and take vpon them to doe all them selues / and to be as it were / eye / and eare / and hande and all. S. Paule proueth that the churche is a body / wherein there are manye members / and the same di∣uers one from an other / and that it is not one member only. And to proue that / it was sufficient to say that he placed some Apostles / some Prophets / some Doc∣tors / without rehearsing all the kindes of functions. But in the Epistle to the Ephesians / meaning to shew the liberalitie of our sauiour Christ in geuing those / which shoulde be able by doctrine and teaching to make perfect and absolute hys church / it was necessary that he shoulde recken vp all those functions / whereby that worke is done.

But how commeth it to passe that S. Paule neyther in the one place / ney∣ther in the other / nor else where / maketh mention of the archbishop / which is sayd to be the cheefest piller and vnder setter of the church? Now I heare what is sayde to this: that vnder the pastor is contayned byshop / he is not contayned / but is the same that pastor. How then? forsoth say they an archbyshop is byshop / well then / of byshops some are archbyshops / & some are what? Heere I see that they are hanged in y^e bush / but I will helpe them. Of byshops some are archbyshops / some are by the common name byshops: For if they answere not thus / what haue they to say? But what an absurd thing were that / to say that S. Paule compre∣hended an archbyshop vnder a pastor or byshop / which neyther was at that time / nor certayne hundreth yeares after? thys were not to deuide / but to prophesie. And how is it that they neuer marked that S. Paule speaketh of those functi∣ons which were in the church / and not of those which should be afterwarde? and of those that God had geuen / and not of those which he would geue? for the words are / (and he hath geuen.)

Moreouer if so be vnder the pastor / the apostle comprehended an archby∣shop / then the archbyshop is necessary / and such as the church can not be with∣out / and commaunded of God / and therefore not taken vp by the pollicie of the church for the time and countrey / and other circumstances / and such also as can not be put downe at the will of the church / which is contrary to the iudgement of those / which are the archbyshops patrones. The last refuge is / that the A∣postle made mention of those functions / which haue to do with the ministring of the word & sacraments / & not of those which haue to do with order & discipline.

Speake in good earnest / had the Apostles nothing to doe with discipline & order? with what face can you take away the raines of gouernment out of the A∣postles hands / and put them in the Archbyshops and Archdeacons hands? what a peruersenesse is thys / that the ministeries inuented by men / should be preferred to all the ministeries appoynted and commaunded of God.

The Apostles forsoth haue in common with the Archbyshops and Arch∣deacons the power of ministring of the worde and of the sacraments / of binding and losyng / and thus farre as good as the Archbyshops and Archdeacons: But for disciplyne and order / the Apostles haue nothing to doe / but herein Archby∣shops and Archdeacons are aboue them / and better then they.

Now syr / if I would follow your vaine of making so many exclamations / as Oh the impudencie / Oh the insolencie / with twentie other such great Ohs / you see I haue occasion both heere and else where / but I would not gladly de∣clame / especially when I should dispute / nor make outcries in stead of reasons.

But to come to this distinction: I had thought before this time / that the apostles had bene y^e * cheefe builders in setting vp y^e church: now I perceiue you make the archbyshops and archdeacons the cheefe builders / and the apostles vn∣der carpenters / or common masons / to serue and to take the commaundement of the archbishop and archdeacon. And wheras it is sayd / that the ministers which S. Paule speaketh of / are in the worde and sacramentes / binding and loosing on∣ly / and that there be other which are besides these / occupyed in the order and dis∣ciplyne of the church (of which number are archbyshops and archdeacons) let vs marke a little what deepe diuinitie heere is.

And first of all / I would gladly aske them / with what aduise they haue layde on a greater burden and waight of the archbishops and archdeacons shoul∣ders / then the apostles were able to sustaine?

Secondarily / I aske with what boldnesse / and vpon the confidence of what giftes / any man dare take vppon him both that which the apostles did / and more too? Then I say that it is too too vnskilfully done / to seperate order / and disci∣pline from them that haue the ministerie of the word in hand / as though y^e church

without archbyshops and archdeacons / were a confused heape / and a disordered lumpe / when as S. Paule teacheth it to be without them / a body consisting of all his partes and members / comely knitte and ioyned together / wherein nothing wanteth / nor nothing is too much. Doth it not pertayne to order / that the apo∣stle sayth / that God hath set first apostles / secondly prophets / thirdly teachers? are not these wordes (first / second / third / differences of order? if this be not order / surely I know not what order is. And yet neyther archbyshop nor archdeacon author of this / and it was kept also before they were hatched.

Let vs see of disciplyne and gouernment / which we may see to be commit∣ted to those / which haue the preaching of the word / and to others also which dyd not preach the worde / when S. Paule sayth that the elders which gouerne wel / are worthy double honor / especially those which trauaile in the word. Where he appoynteth the gouernement to the ministers of the worde / and to those also that were not ministers of the worde. And thereupon it followeth / that the ministers of the church are not seuered one from an other / as you seuer them / because some haue the ministration of the worde and sacramentes only / and some with the ad∣ministration of the sacramentes and word / haue also the gouernement and disci∣plyne in their handes / but cleane contrariwise S. Paule distinguisheth them / and sheweth that all y^e ministers in the church haue the gouermnent / but all haue not the worde to handle / so that he distinguisheth the ministerie into that / whiche is occupyed in the worde and gouernment / and into that which is occupyed in the gouernment only. But in this distinction you do not only forget S. Paule / but you forget your selfe. For if S. Paule speake in that place of those that meddle with the ministring of the word and sacraments only: why doth the bishop which is one of the ministers that S. Paule speaketh of (being the same that pastor is) why I say doth he meddle with the discipline and order of the church / seeing that belongeth not to him by your distinction? why doth also the archbishop (whome you say is a bishop) meddle with it? and thus you see you neede no other aduersa∣ry then your selfe / to confute you.

And least any man shoulde say I confute mine owne shadow / I must let hym vnderstand that there is a pamphlet in Latine / which is called the booke of the doctors / which goeth from hande to hande / and especially (so farre as they coulde bring to passe) to those only that they thought to fauoure that opynion / in the which booke / all these answeres vnto the place of the Ephesians are contay∣ned / and almost all that which is comprehended in thys defence of archbishops and archdeacons / with other things also which are founde in this booke of M. Doctors: and therefore it is very likely / that he hauing no other way to vente hys rapsodies and rakings togither / thought he would bring them to light after thys sorte / but how much better had it bene / that thys myshapen thing had had the mothers wombe for the graue / or being brought out / had bene hidden as the former is / in some bench hole or darke place / where it should neuer haue seene any light / nor no mans eye should euer haue looked of it? And thus all these cloudes being scattered by the sunne of truth / you see that the place to the Ephesians / stan∣deth strong agaynst the archbishop and archdeacon.

Now will I reason also after thys sorte out of the place of the Ephesians and Corinthyans ioyned together. There is no function but hathe giftes fitte and apte to discharge it / annexed and geuen vnto it: whereuppon the Apostle by a Metonomy / doth call the Apostles / Prophets. &c. giftes / because they haue alwayes giftes ioyned with them. Thys being graunted (as no man can deny it) I reason thus.

Those functions only are suffycient for the church / which haue all the gifts needefull / eyther for the mynistring of the worde and sacramentes / or for the gouernement of the churche: but all these functions reckened of S. Paule to

the Ephesians / with those which S. Paule calleth antilepseis, and kyberneseis (which are y^e deacons and elders) haue the gifts needeful / eyther for the gouern∣ment of the church / eyther else for the ministering of the worde and sacramentes: therefore these functions only are sufficient for the church / for it is a superfluous thing to make more offices / then there be giftes to furnish them / for so they that shoulde haue them / shoulde rather be idols then officers. And therefore for as much as there is no gift which falleth not into some of these functions / it is alto∣gether a vaine and vnprofitable thing / to bring more offices and functions into the church besides these.

And so it may be thus reasoned. If men may make and erect new ministe∣ries / they must eyther geue giftes for to discharge them / or assure men that they shall haue giftes of God / whereby they may be able to answere them. But they can neyther geue giftes / nor assure men of any giftes necessary to discharge those functions / therefore they may make or erect no new ministeries.

Last of all / I conclude agaynst these made and deuised ministeries of arch∣bishops and archdeacons after this sort. If men may adde ministeries / they may also take away / for those both belong to one authoritie: but they can not take a∣way those ministeries that God hath placed in his church / therefore they can not adde to those that are placed in the church. And this foundation I thought first to lay / or euer I entred into M. Doctors not reasons / but authorities / not of God / but of men / in confuting of which / there will fall forth also other arguments agaynst both these offices of archbishop / and archdeacon.

Now I will come to the examining of your witnesses / whereof some of them are so bored in the eares / and branded in their foreheades / that no man neede to feare any credite they shall get before any iudge wheresoeuer / or before whom∣soeuer they come / but in the Romishe courte / and the papistes only excepted. For to let go Polidore Virgil / because whatsoeuer hee sayth / hee sayth of the credite of another / lette vs come to Clement which is the author of this you speake. And what is he? is there any so blinde that knoweth not that this was nothing lesse then Clement / of whome S. Paule speaketh / and which * some thinke was the first bishop of Rome ordayned by Peter / and not rather a wicked helhounde / into whom the Lord had sent sathan to be a lying spirit in his mouth / to deceiue them for their vnthankfull receiuing of the gospell? And he must witnesse for the arch∣bishop: a worthy witnesse. For as all that popishe hierarchie came out of the bottomlesse pitte of hell / so to vpholde the archbishop the necke of it / whereupon that Romishe monster standeth / are raised vp from hell bastardes / Clemens and Anacletus / and in deede as it may appeare / the very naturall sonnes of Sathan / and the sworne souldiers of Antichrist.

A man would haue thought / that the bishop of Salisburie master Iuell / had so pulled of the painting of the face of this Clement / that all good men would haue had him in detestation / so farre of would they haue bene to haue alledged out of him to proue any thing that is in controuersie.

The bishop alledgeth both Eusebius and S. Ierome to proue / that none of those workes which goe in his name / are his. And although the proufes bee strong which the bishop vseth / being the witnes of vnsuspected witnesses: yet because y^e law / although it allow two witnesses / notwithstanding doth like better of three / I will set downe heere also Ireneus which was a great while before them both / and followed hard after the times of the true and vncounterfaite Cle∣ment / and therefore could best tell of him / and of hys writings / & yet * he maketh mention but of one Epistle / which vpon occasion amongst the Corinthians / he wrote to them. In deede in another place of that booke / he sheweth that it is ve∣ry probable / that Clement also eyther wrote or turned the Epistle to the He∣brewes. Now if that Epistle to the Corinthes / were extante / we shoulde easely

set by comparing those that are now in hys name with that / what a my shapen thing this is.

And if so be that Ireneus coniecture be good / that Clement was the au∣thor or interpreter of the Epistle to the Hebrues / then what horrible iniurie is done to the holy ghost / whyle the same is supposed the wryter of thys booke to the Hebrewes / which is the author of suche beggery / as thys Clement brought into the worlde? And I pray you / doe you holde that it is the true christyan re∣lygion / whyche that booke contayneth? Coulde none of these consyderations driue you from the testimonie of thys Clement? it goeth very harde wyth the archbyshop / when these Clementes and Anacletusses / must be brought to vn∣derproppe hym.

But what if there be no such booke as thys is / which you name (when you say in hys booke intituled / compendiariū religionis christianae) it is like you know not him / nor what he sayth / when you can not tell so much as his name. Only be∣cause Polidore wryteth that Clement sayth this / in a certayne short & summary booke of christian relygion / you haue set downe that he wryteth thus in a booke intituled compendiarium christianae religionis / where there is no such title / ney∣ther in the councels where hys Epistles are / neyther yet in all other hys works.

Thought you to disguise hym with thys new name of the booke / that hee shoulde not be knowne? ••or ment you to occupy your answerer in seeking of a booke / which because he shoulde neuer fynde / he should neuer answer. The place which Polidore meaneth / is in the first epistle which he wryteth vnto Iames / the brother of the Lord / which is as the rest are both rediculous in the manner of wryting / & in the matter oftner tymes wycked & blasphemous / which I speake to thys ende / that the reader through the commendation that M. Doctor hath geuen to thys Clement / in taking hym as one of hys wytnesses in so great a mat∣ter / be not abused.

For answere vnto hym / although he be not worth the answering / I say that first it may be well sayde heere of the office of the Archbyshop / that the father of it was an Amorite / and mother a Hittite / that is / that it commeth of very in∣famous parentage / the beginning therof being of the idolatrous nations.

And whereas Clement maketh S. Peter the Apostle to make it as it were hys adopted sonne / thereby to wipe away the shame of hys birth / it doth S. Peter shamefull iniury. For besides that it was farre from S. Peter / to take thys authoritie to hym selfe / not only of making archbyshops through out euery prouince / but also instituting a new order or office / without the councell of the rest of the apostles / which none else of the apostles dyd / and which is contra∣ry to the practise of S. Peter / both in the first and sixt of the Actes / contrary al∣so to the practises of the apostles / which after shall appeare: I say besides thys / is it lyke that S Peter would grasse the noblest plant (as it is sayde) of the my∣nisterie of the gospell / in such a rotten stocke of that which was most abhomina∣ble in all idolarrie? for the greater they were in the seruice of the idolles / the more detestable were they before God.

The Lorde / when he woulde geuelawes of worshipping / vnto hys people / in the things that were indifferent / of shauing & cutting / and apparell wearing / sayth to his people / that they shoulde not doe so / and so / because the Gentiles dyd so / yea euen in those things / the vse whereof was otherwise very profitable / and incommodious to forbeare / he would haue thē notwithstanding to abstaine from / as from swines flesh / conneys. &c. to the end that hee might haue them seuered / as appeareth in S. Paule / by a great and high wall from other nations.

And therefore it is very vnlike that S. Peter would frame the ministerie of the gospell (which is no ceremonie / but of the substance of the gospell) by the ex∣ample of the heathenish / and idolatrous functions.

If one had sayde / that the Lord had shapen hys common wealth / by the pa∣terne of other common wealthes / although it had bene most vntrue (all other flourishing common wealthes of Athens / Lacedemon / & Rome / borowing their good lawes of the Lordes common wealth) yet had it bene more tollerable: but to say he framed the ministery of the gospell / by the priesthode of idolatrie / is to fetch chastitie out of Sodome / and to seeke for heauen in hell.

And if so be that the Lord had delighted in thys hierarchie / he would rather haue taken of hys owne / then borowed of others / of hys owne church / then of the sinagogue of Sathan. For vnder y^e law besides the Leuites / there were priestes / and aboue them a high priest.

And to say that Peter appoynted archbyshoppes and byshoppes / by the ex∣ample of the idolaters / is after a sort to make the law to come out of Egypt or Babylon / and not out of Sion or Ierusalem / as the Prophet sayth. You say after that / Iames was an archbyshop: if he were / he was the first / and placed ouer the Iewes.

And although S. Peter might to gaine the Gentiles / he content to vse their idolatrous functions / with a little chaunge of their names / yet there is none so mad / to thinke that he would translate any such function from the Gentiles vn∣to the Iewes / whych were neuer before accustomed with any such Flamines / or Archiflamines. And thys I dare generally and at once say against you and your Clement / that the Lord translated diuers things out of the Law / into the Gos∣pell / as the Presbytery or eldershyp / excommunication / and the office of Deacons (as it is thought) for that the Saduces / of whome so often mention is made in the gospell / are thought to haue had that offyce to prouide for the poore / for those that know the Hebrew tongue / doe vnderstand that tsaddikim and tsedacah, do not only signifie iustice and iust men / but also almes and almes men: I say these and others more translated from the law vnto the gospell / but neyther you nor your Clement / shall euer be able to shew / that the Lord euer translated any thing from Gentelisme into the gospell.

We reade in the Actes / that all the Gentiles were commaunded to con∣forme them selues vnto the Iewes in the abstayning from bloude and strangled meate for a tyme / but we can neuer finde that the Iewes were commaunded to conforme them to the Gentiles in their ceremonies / the reason wherof is / because the one was sometymes the law of God / and therefore he that had conscience in it / was to be borne with / and the other came from men / and out of their forge / which the Lord would neuer geue so much honor vnto / as to make other men by any meanes subiect vnto them.

But what if there were no such offices amongst the Gentiles & Paganes / as Archiflamines / or Protoflamines? whereof before I shew the coniectures which I haue / I must geue the (gentle reader) to vnderstand / that I am not ig∣norant that there are diuers which say there were such offices amongst the Gen∣tiles / and namely heere in Englande / that there were. 25. Flamines / and three Archiflamines / wherof were made three archbyshops / of London / Canterbury / and Yorke / and. 25. Bishops / as Platine hath in the chapter Eleutherius: And Galfridus Monemutensis in hys seconde booke and first chapter. And Lum∣barde in hys fourthe booke speaketh of it / as of a generall thing that was in all places where Paganisme was. But if so be that the relygion of other Paganes dyd follow / and was lyke vnto that of the Romaines (which is very probable) they being then the rulers of the whole worlde in a maner / vnto whose example all men doe lightly conforme them selues / euen without commaundement / then there is great likelyhoode / there were no such archiflamines / or protoflamines out of Tullie / which sheweth that there was amongst the Romaines dyuers kindes of priestes / whereof some were called flamines / of a seuerall attire which

they ware alwayes of their heades / other pontifices, and a thir•••••• sort were called Salij, and that the cheefe of these Flamines / was called fl••me•• ••••al••s, who was also distinguished from the rest / vp a white hatte / but of any archiflamines / or protoflamines / he maketh no mention at all / and therefore it is lyke that there was neuer any such office amongst the Paganes.

And if there were / I haue shewed how wycked it is to say that Peter fra∣med the mynisterie of the gospell by it. Now let it be seene of all men / how strong∣ly you haue concluded / that the names of archbyshoppes are not antichristian / when as it is most certen / that he was a piller of antichrist / vppon whome your reason is grounded.

The tymes wherein Volusianus lyued / declare suffyciently how little cre∣dite is to be geuen to hys testimonie / which were when the masse had place / if not so wycked as it was after / yet notwithstanding farre differing from the simplici∣tie of the supper which was left by our sauiour Christ. And Eusebius is of more credite in thys then Volusianus / which sayth of the reporte of Dionisius byshop of Corinthe / that S. Paule made Dionisius Areopagita byshop of Athens: he sayth not archbyshop / but byshop / although he speake twise of it. And in the pre∣face before hys workes / it is fayde / that after hys conuersion / he went to Rome to Clement / and was sent with others of Clement / into the West partes / and that he came to Paris / and was there executed / whether so euer of these opinions is true / that falleth whyche Volusianus affirmeth. And if eyther Volusianus or you / will haue vs beeleue that Dyonisius Areopagita was archbyshoppe of Athens / you must shew some better authoritie then Eusebius or Dyonisius byshop of Corinthe / and then your cause shall haue at the least some more coloure of truthe.

Erasmus followeth / which sayth Titus was archbyshop of Crete / whom I coulde answere with hys owne wordes / for I am sure he will graunt me / that Titus & Timothe had one office / the one in Ephesus / the other in Crete: but it appeareth by Erasmus hys owne wordes / that Timothe was but byshop of E∣phesus / therefore Titus was but byshop of Crete. For Erasmus in hys argu∣ment vpon the first Epistle of Timothe / sayth that S. Paule did enfornie Ti∣mothe of the office of a byshop / and of the discipline of the church: If eyther he had bene an archbyshop / or an archbyshop had bene so necessary as it is made / hee would haue instructed hym in that also.

And I pray you tell me / whether Erasmus or the Greeke Scholiast / be more to bee beeleeued in thys poynte / out of whome is taken that whyche is in the latter ende of the Epystles to Tymothe and Tytus / where they bothe are called the first elected Byshoppes that euer were / eyther of Ephesus or Creta. For my parte I thyncke they were neyther Byshoppes nor Archby∣shoppes / but Euangelistes / as shall appeare afterwardes: But it maye be suf∣fycient to haue sette agaynste Erasmus authoritie / the authoritie of the Scho∣liaste. And if heere you will cauill and say that the Scholiaste whych sayeth hee was Byshoppe / denyeth not but that he also was an Archbyshoppe / because an archbyshop is a byshop / it may be answered casely / that the Scholiaste dyd not speake nor wryte so vnproperly / as to call them by the generall name of byshop / whome he myght as easely haue called (if the truth woulde haue let hym) by a more proper and particular name of archbyshop. And further in thys dyuision of the mynisters / the archbyshop and the byshop are members of one dyuision / and therefore one of them can not be affirmed and sayde of an other / for that were con∣trary to the nature of a true dyuision.

And yet I haue a further answere / bothe to Erasmus and Volusianus / and whatsoeuer other haue written after thys sort / that they speake & gaue titles to those men they wrote of / not according to that which they were / but according

to the custome and manner of that age wherein they wrote. And so we may read that Vincentius and Nicephorus wryting of Victor / speake farre otherwise of hym / then Eusebius doth / which notwithstanding wrote of the same man which they dyd. The one calleth Victor the Pope of Rome. And the other sayeth / that in glory he passed all the byshops before hym / which Eusebius neuer maketh any word of. Euen so Volusianus and Erasmus / lyuing in the tymes when as they which were the most esteemed in the ministerie / were called archbyshops / call Titus and Dyonisius archbyshops / vpon whome depended the cheefe care of those churches which they gouerned.

There followeth Anacletus / an other of these witnesses / which must de∣pose that the name of an archbyshop is not antychristian / of whome / as of Cle∣ment that went before / and Anicetus which followeth after / the common pro∣uerbe may be verifyed / Aske my fellow if I be a theefe. And although the an∣swerer be ashamed of hym / and sayth therefore he will omit him / yet euen very neede dryueth hym / to bring hym in / and to make hym speake the vttermost hee can. And thys honest man sayth / that Iames was the first archbyshop of Ieru∣salem. But Eusebius sayth / Iames was byshop / not archbyshop of Ierusa∣lem / and appoynted by the apostles. And in an other place / he sayth / that the a∣postles dyd appoynt after hys death / Simeon the sonne of Cleophas / byshop of Ierusalem. And Ireneus sayeth / that the apostles in all places appoynted by∣shops vnto the churches / whereby it may appeare what an idle dreame it is of Clement / Volusianus / and Anacletus / eyther that Peter dyd thys by his owne authoritie / or that the primitiue churche was euer staynes wyth these ambyti∣ous tytles of patriarche / prymate / metropolytane / or archbyshoppe / when as the storyes make mention / that thoroughe out euery churche / not chery pro∣uince / not by Peter or Paule / but by apostles / a byshop / not an archbyshop / was appoynted.

And heere you put me in remembraunce of an other argument agaynst the archbyshop / which I will frame after thys sorte. If there shoulde be any arch∣byshop many place / the same shoulde be eyther in respect of the persone or mini∣ster and hys excellencie / or in respecte of the magnificence of the place: but the most excellent mynisters that euer were / in the most famous places / were no archbyshops / but byshops only / therefore there is no cause why there shoulde be any archbyshop. For if there were euer mynister of a congregation worthy / that was Iames / if there were euer any citte that ought to haue thys honor / as that the mynister of it should haue a more honorable title / then the mynisters of other cities and townes / that was Ierusalem / where the sonne of God preached / and from whence the gospell issued out vnto all places. And afterwarde that Ieru∣salem decayed / and the church there / Antioche was a place where the notablest men were that euer haue bene since / which also deserued great honoure / for that there the * disciples were first called christians / but neyther was that called the first and cheefest church / neyther the mynisters of it called the Arche or principal byshoppes. And Eusebius to declare that thys order was firme and durable / sheweth that S. Iohn the Apostle / which ouer lyued the residue of the Apo∣stles / ordayned byshops in euery church.

These two / Anacletus and Anicetus / you say / are suspected / why do you say suspected / when as they haue bene conuinced and condemned / and stande vp∣pon the pillery / with the cause of forgerie written in great letters / that he which runneth may reade? Some of the papistes them selues / haue suspected them / but those which mayntayne the truth haue condemned them as full of popery / full of blasphemy / and as those in whome was the very spirit of contradiction to the A∣postles and their doctryne.

And do you marke what you say / when you say that these are but suspected?

Thus much you say / that it is suspected / or in doubt / whether the whole body of poperie and antichristianitie were in the Apostles time / or sone after or no / for Clement was in the Apostles time / and their scholer / and so you leaue it in dout, whether the apostles appoynted and were the authors of popery or no. I thinke if euer you had red the Epistles / you woulde neuer haue cited their authorities / nor haue spoken so fauourably of them as you doe.

You come after to the councel of Nice / wherin I wil not sticke with you / that you say it was holden the .CCC. xxx. yeare of the Lorde / when as it maye appeare by Eusebius hys Computation / that it was holden. Anno Domini CCC xx. and heere you take so greate a leape / that it is enoughe to breake the archbishoppes necke / to skippe at once .CCC. yeares / (that is / from the tyme of the apostles / vntill the time of the councell of Nice) wythout any testimony of any / either father / or storie of faithe and credite / whych maketh once mention of an archbishop. What no mention of hym in Theophilus / byshop of Antioche? none in Ignatius? none in Clemens Alexandrinus / none in Iustin Martyr / in Ireneus / in Tertullian / in Origine / in Cyprian / none in all those olde Hi∣storiographers / out of the whych Eusebius gathereth hys story? Was it for his basenes and smalnes / that he could not be seene amongst the byshops / elders / and deacons / being the cheefe and principall of them all? can the Ceder of Lebanon be hid amongst the boxe trees? Aristotle in his Rhethorike ad Theodecten, sayeth / that it is a token of contempt / to forget the name of an other / belike therefore if there were any archbishop / he had no chaire in the church / but was as it semeth / digging at the metalles. For otherwise they that haue filled their bookes wyth the often mentioning of bishops / would haue no doubt remembred him. But let vs heare what the councell of Nice hath for these titles.

In the. 6. canon mention is made of a metropolitane bishop: what is that to the metropolitane whych is now / either to the name / or to the office? of the of∣fice it shal appeare afterwards. In the name I thinke there is a great differēce / betwene a metropolitane bishop / & metropolitane of England / or of al England. A Metropolitane bishop was nothing els / but a bishop of that place / which it pleased the Emperor or magistrate to make the chefe citie of the diocese or shire / and as for thys name / it maketh no more difference betwene bishop and bishop / then when I say a minister of London / and a minister of Nuington. There is no man that is well aduised / whych will gather of thys saying / that there is as great difference in preheminence betweene those two ministers / as is betweene London / and Nuington: for his office and preheminence / we shall see hereafter.

There are alledged to proue the names of archbyshops / patriarkes / arch∣deacons / the. 13. 25. 26. and. 27. Canons of the councel of Nece. For the. 25. 26. 27. there are no such canons of that councell: and although there be a thirtenthe canon / there is no worde of patriarke / or archdeacon / there contained. And I maruell wyth what shame you can thruste vppon vs these counterfaite canons whych come out of the popes minte / yea / and whych are not to be found. Theo∣doret sayeth / that there are but twentie Canons of the councell of Neece / and those twentie are in the tome of the councels / and in those there is no mention of any patriarke / archdeacon / archbishop. Ruffine also remembreth. 22. Canons / very little differing from those other twenty / but in lengthe / and in none of those are found any of these names of archbishop / archdeacon / patriarke. And it is as lawfull for M. Harding to alledge the. 44. canon of the coūcell of Nece / to proue the supremacie of the Pope of Rome / as it is for M. doctor Whitgift / to alledge the. 25. 26. 27. to proue the name of archbyshop / archdeacon / patriarke: for they are all of one stampe / and haue lyke authoritie.

I feare greatly / some craftye dissembling papist had hys hand in this boke / who hauing a great deale of rotten stuffe / whych he coulde not vtter vnder hys

owne name (being already lost) brought it vnto the author heereof / whych hath vpon his credite without further examination / set it to sale. Peraduenture you will thinke scorne to be censured and reprehended of a poore minister of the coun∣trey / and therfore I will turne you ouer for your lesson in thys behalfe / vnto the bishop of Salisburie in hys Replie against M. Harding / touching the article of the supremacie. If all shoulde be allowed of / that S. Ambrose alloweth of / then besides other things whych he holdeth corruptly / the marriage of the ministers should go very hard: But it is worthy to be obserued / wyth what words Amb. doth allowe of the archbishop / that all men may vnderstande / howe lowe it goeth wyth M. Doctor / for his defence of the archbishop / and howe the archbishop is so out of credite / that there can not be gotten any to be surety for hys honesty.

Ambrose complaining of the ministers or bishops in those dayes / sayeth / it a man aske them / who preferred them to be priestes / answere is made by and by / that the archbyshop for an hundreth shillings / ordained me bishop / to whome I gaue a hundreth shillings / that I might get the fauor to be bishop / whych if I had not giuen / I had not bene byshop. And afterward he sayeth / that this gree∣ued him / that the archbyshop ordained byshops carnally / or for some carnall res∣pecte. And thys is all the allowance that Ambrose sheweth of an archbyshoppe. Your archbishop taketh all things in good parte / so that his very dispraise he ex∣poundeth to hys commendation. And there is great likelyhode / that the archby∣shop whych Ambrose maketh mention of / was no other / then he whych for the time ruled the action / wherin byshops were ordained / and after the action ended / had no more authoritye then the rest.

And I am moued so to thincke. First / because it is not like / that one only ordained byshops / being contrary to the olde Canons of the best councelles / but that there were other / and that thys whome Ambrose calleth archbyshop / dyd gather the voyces. &c.

Secondly / because it was very vnlike / that there was any absolutely / a∣boue S. Ambrose / in those partes where he complaineth of euill byshops / or mi∣nisters made.

Thirdly / for that Ambrose in an other place (whych you after cite) deui∣ding all the church into the cleargye and laitye / dothe subdeuide the cleargy into bishops / elders / and deacons / and therfore it is not like that there was any which had any continuall function of archbyshop. But as he was called choregos or leader of the daūce / whych commeth first / and after comming in againe in the se∣cond or third place / is no more so called: so that byshop was called archbyshop / whych for the time present did gather the voyces of the rest of the byshoppes / whych he by & by layde downe wyth the dissoluing of the meeting. And that this is not my coniecture only / that there was no ordinarye or absolute archbyshop / let the Centuries be seene / whych alledge that place of Ambrose / to proue that the office of an archbishop / was not then come into the church / whych was. 400 yeares after Christ / and more also.

Basile you say the greate Metropolitane of Cappadocia. I haue shewed what the worde metropolitane signifieth / and howe there was not then suche a metropolitane as we haue now / and as y^e admonition speaketh against. You play as he which is noted as none of the wisest amongst y^e marchants / which thought that euery shyp that approched the hauen / was his shippe: for so you thinke that wheresoeuer you reade metropolitane or archbyshop / forthwith you thinke there is your metropolitane or your archbyshop / whereas it shall appeare / that besides the name / they are no more like then a byshop wyth vs / is like a minister.

I can not tell whether you would abuse your reader heere / wyth the falla∣cion of the accent / because thys worde (Great) is so placed betweene Basile and metropolitane / that it may be as wel referred to the metropolitane / as to Bastle /

and so you hauing put no comma, it seemeth you had as l••eue haue your reader read great metropolitane / as great Basil. But y^t the simpler sort be not deceiued therby / it is not out of the way to let the reader vnderstand / what a great metro∣politane thys was / whych * appeareth / for that when he was threatned by the magistrate / confiscation of hys goodes / answeared / that he was not afraid of the threatnings / and that all hys goodes were a very few bokes / and an olde gowne / suche were then those Metropolitanes / vnder whose shadowes M. Doctor go∣eth aboute to shroude all this pompe / and princely magnificence of oure archby∣shoppes.

As for Simeon archbyshop of Seleucia / I will not deny / but at that time was the name of archbyshops / for then Sathan had made throughe the titles of archbishop / primate / patriarch / as it were three stayers / wherby antichrist might clime vp into hys curssed seate. Notwithstanding there wanted not good decrees of godly councelles / whych did strike at these proude names / and went aboute to keepe them downe / but the swelling waters of the ambition of diuers / coulde not by any bankes be kept in / whych hauing once broken oute in certaine places / af∣terwardes couered almost the face of the whole earthe.

This endeuoure of godly men / may appeare in the councell of Carthage / whych decreed that the bishop of the first seat / shoulde not be called exarchon ton hieron, e akron ierea, e toiouton tipore: that is / either the chefe of the priestes / or the high priest / or any such thing / by whych wordes (any such thing) he shutteth out the name of archbyshop / and all such hautie titles.

The same decree also was made in the Affricane councell / and if you saye that it was made against the Pope of Rome / or to forbid that any man should be called archbyshop / shewe me where there was either byshop of Rome / or any o∣ther that euer made any suche title or chalenge / to be the generall byshop of all / at that time / when this councell of Carthage was holden: when as the first of those whych did make any suche chalenge / was the byshop of Constantinople / whych notwithstanding chalenged not the preheminence first ouer all / but that he might ordaine byshoppes of Asia / Pontus / Thracia / whych were before appoynted by their Sinodes / and thys was in the councell of Chalcedon / whych was long af∣ter that councell of Carthage before remembred.

For to proue the lawfulnesse of the name of an archdeacon / the antiquitye / the necessitye of it / the testimonies of foure are broughte / which neither speake of their lawfulnes / nor of their necessity / and they say not in deede so muche as God saue them: and two of these witnesses are Popes / whereof the first / and best / or∣dained that if the Metropolitane did not fetche hys pall at the apostolike sea of Rome / wythin three monthes after he were consecrated / that then he should lose his dignity / as Gratian witnesseth in the decrees y^• he ascribeth vnto Damasus.

I doubt not therfore that this is but a forger / vpon whom you would fa∣ther the archdeacon / for that Damasus / in whose place you put this forger / liued An. 387. at what time the sea of Rome had no suche tirannye as thys / and other things which are fathered of him / do pretēd. And if this be enough to proue arch∣deacons / I can with better witnes proue subdeacons / acoluthes, exorcistes, lecto∣res, ostiarios, these dothe Eusebius make mention of / an auncienter wryter / then any you bring / and out of Ruffine / Theodoret / Sozomen / Socrates. &c. monks almost in euery page. And heere vpon it is more lawfull for me to conclude / that monkes / subdeacons / exorcistes, acoluthes, ostiarij, lectores, are necessary ecclesia∣sticall orders in the church / as you conclude the necessity of the archdeacon.

I perceiue you care not whether the archdeacon fall or no / that you bestow so little coste of hym / and leaue him so nakedly. And if I woulde be but halfe so holde in coniectures / and diuinations / as you are / I coulde say that thys sleighte handling of the archdeacon / and sweating so muche aboute the archbyshoppe / is

thervpon y^• you woid be loth to come frō being deane / to be an archdeacon / & you liue in some hope of being archbyshop / but I will not enter so farre. And surely for any thing that I see / you might haue trussed vp the archbyshop as shorte / as you do the archdeacon. For they stand vpon one pinne / and those reasons whych establishe the one / establishe the other / wherevpon also commeth to passe / that all those reasons whych were before alledged against the archbishop / may be drawn against the archdeacon / hauing therfore before proued the vnlawfulnes of them / I will heere set downe the difference betweene those archdeacons that were in times past / and those whych are nowe / whereby it may appeare they are nothing like / but in name.

(a) They were no ministers / as appeareth in Sozomen / oures are.

(b) They were tied to a certaine churche / and were called archdeacon of suche a congregation or churche / oures are tied to none / but are called archdea∣cons of suche a shire.

(c) They were chosen by all the Deacons of the churche where they be archdeacons / oures are appoynted by one man / and whych is no deacon.

(d) They were subiect to the minister of the word / oures are aboue them / and rule ouer them.

(e) It was counted to them great arrogancie / if they preferred thēselues to any minister or elder of the churche / oures will not take the best ministers of the churche as their equalles. If therfore archdeacons will haue any benefite by the archdeacons of olde time / it is meete they shoulde content them selues wyth that place whych they were in.

As for the office of a deane / as it is vsed wyth vs / it is therfore vnlawfull / for that he being minister / hathe no seuerall charge or congregation appoynted wherein he maye exercise hys ministerie / and for that he is ruler / and as it were maister of diuers other ministers in hys colledge / whych likewise haue no seueral charges of congregations: and for that whych is most intollerable bothe he hym selfe oftentimes hauing a seuerall churche or benefice / as they call it / is vnder the coloure of hys deaneship / absent from hys churche / and suffereth also those that are vnderneathe hym / to be likewise absent from their churches. And whereas M. Doctor alleageth S. Augustine / to proue thys office to be auncient / in deede the name is there founde / but besides the name / not one propertye of that Deane whych we haue. For Augustine speaking of the monkes of those dayes / sayeth / that the money which they gate wyth the labor of their hands / they gaue to their deane / which did prouide them meate and drinke / and cloth / and all things neces∣sary for them / so that the monkes shoulde not be drawne away from their studies and meditations / throughe the care of worldly things / so that thys deane whych he speaketh of / was seruaunt and steward / and cater to the monkes / and therfore only called deane / because he was steward and cater to ten monkes. Now let it be seene what Augustines deane / maketh for the deane whych is nowe / and what faith and trust M. Doctor vseth / in reciting of the olde fathers.

And vnto the ende that these testimonies might be more autenticall / & haue some waight in them / M. Doctor addeth / that hetherto antichrist had not inua∣ded the seat of Rome. You shall haue much a do / to proue that antichrist had not inuaded the sea of Rome / when your Clement / Anaclete / Anicete / and Dama∣sus wrote. Nay / it is moste certaine / that then he had possessed it. But what is that to the purpose / althoughe there was no one singulare head appeared / or lif∣ted vp / yet corruption of doctrine / and of the sacraments / hurtful ceremonies / do∣minion and pompe of the cleargye / newe orders and functions of the ministerie / whych were the handes that pulled hym / the fete whych brought him / the shoul∣ders that lifted and heaued him vp into that seate / were in the church. Neither / while you doe thus speake / doe you seeme to remember that this monster needed

nine monethes / but almoste nine hundreth yeares / to be framed and fashioned / or euer he could wyth all his partes be brought to light. And although the Loouer of thys antichristian building were not set vp / yet y^e foundations therof being se∣cretely / and vnder the ground laid in the apostles times / you might easely know / that in those times that you speake of / the building was wonderfully aduaūced and growne very highe. And being a very dangerous thing to ground any order or pollicy of the church vpon men at all / whych in deede ought to haue their stan∣ding vpon the doctrine and orders of the apostles / I wil shew what great iniu∣rie M. Doctor doth / to sende vs for our examples and paternes of gouernment to these times / whych he doth direct vs vnto.

Eusebius oute of Egesippus / wryteth / that as long as the apostles liued / the churche remained a pure virgin / for that / if there were any that went about to corrupt the holy rule that was preached / they did it in the darke / & as it were digging vnderneath the earth. But after y^e death of the apostles / and y^e generati∣on was past / whych God vouchsaued to heare the deuine wisedome wyth their owne eares / then the placing of wicked error / began to come into the church.

Clement also in a certaine place to confirme that there was corruption of doctrine immediately after the apostles times / alledgeth the prouerbe / that there are fewe sonnes like their fathers.

And Socrates sayeth of the church of Rome and Alexandria (which were the most famous churches in the apostles times) that about the yeare. 430. the Romaine and Alexandrian byshops / leauing the sacred function / were degene∣rate to a seculare rule or dominion. Wherevpon we see howe that it is safe for vs to go to the scriptures / and to the apostles times / for to fetch our gouernmēt and order. And that it is very dangerous to drawe from those riuers / the fountaines wherof are troubled and corrupted / especially when as the wayes whereby they runne / are muddier and more fennie / then is the head it selfe.

And although M. Doctor hathe brought neither scripture / nor reason / nor councel / wherin there is either name of archbishop or archdeacon / or proued that there may be / & although he shewe not so much as the name of them. 400. yeres after our sauioure Christ. And although where he sheweth them / they be eyther by counterfait authors / or wythout any worde of approbation of good authors / yet as though he had shewed all / and proued all / hauing shewed nothing / nor pro∣ued nothing / he clappeth the hands to himselfe / and putteth the crowne vpon hys owne heade / saying / that those that be learned / may easely vnderstande / that the names / archbishop / archdeacon / primate / patriarche / be most auncient and appro∣ued of the eldest / best / worthiest councels / fathers / wryters. And a little after∣ward / that they are vnlearned / and ignorant / whych say otherwise.

Heere is a victory blowne wyth a great and sounding trumpet / that might haue bene piped wyth an oten straw. And if it shuld be replied againe / that M. Doctor hathe declared in thys / little learning / little reading / and les iudgement / there might grow controuersies wythout all frute. And by and by / in saying that y^e archbyshops beginning is vnknown / in stead of a bastard / which some brought into the church / that hid them selues because they were ashamed of the childe / he will make vs beleeue that we haue a new Melchisedech / without father / wyth∣out mother / and whose generation is not knowne / and so concludeth wyth the place of S. Augustine / as farre as he remembreth in the. 118. epistle to Ianua∣rie: that the originall of them is from the apostles them selues.

Heere M. Doctor seemeth to seeke after some glory of a good memory / as thoughe he had not Augustine by him / when he wrote this sentence. And yet he maruellously forgetteth him selfe / for he vsed this place before in hys. 23. page / and citeth it there precisely and absolutely / where also I haue shewed howe vn∣aduisedly that sentence of Augustine is approued / & howe that therby a window

is open to bring in all popery / and whatsoeuer other corrupt opinions. That the names of Lordes / and honor / as they are vsed in this realme / are not meete to be giuen to the ministers of the gospell / there hath bene spoken before.

As for Prelate of the Garter / if it be a nedefull office / there are inow to ex∣ecute it besides the ministers / whych / for as much as they be apoynted to watch ouer the soules of men purchased wyth the bloud of Christ / all men vnderstande / that it is not meete that they should attend vpon the body / much les vpon the leg / and least of all vpon the Garter. It is not vnlawfull for Princes to haue mini∣sters of their honor / but also it is not lawful to take those that God hath appoyn∣ted for an other ende / to vse to suche purposes.

Thou seest heere (good Reader) that M. Doctor keepeth hys olde wonte of manifest peruerting of the wordes and meaning of the authors of the admoni∣tion / for where as they say / that the name of Earle / Countie Palatine / Iustice of peace / and Quorum / Commissioner / are antichristian / when they are geuen to ministers of the church / whose calling wil not agree wyth such titles / he conclu∣deth simply / that they say that they be altogither vnlawfull / and simply antichri∣stian. As / if I should reason that it is not meete that the Quenes maiesty shuld preach or minister the Sacraments / therefore it is not meete that there should be any preaching or ministering of the sacraments.

Now letting pas all your hard words / & vnbrotherly speaches / wyth your vncharitable Prognostications / and colde prophesies / I will come to examine / whether you haue any better hap in prouing the office / then you had in prouing the name.

And wheras in the former treatise of the name of the archbyshop / he blew y^e trompet before the victory / here in this of the office he bloweth it / before he com∣meth into the fielde / or striketh one stroke / saying / that they little consider what they wryte / that they are contemners of auncient wryters / & that they neuer red them / and that they are vnlearned / which deny these things which he affirmeth. Wel / what we read / & how vnlearned we are / is not the matter which we striue for. The iudgement thereof is first wyth God / and then with the churches / and in their iudgements we are content to rest. But if you be so greatly learned / and we so vnlearned / and smally red / then the truth of our cause shall more appeare / that is maintained wyth so small learning & reading / against men of suche pro∣found knowledge and great reading. And yet I knowe not why (if we be not to idle) we shuld not be able to read as much as you / which may haue leisure to read a good long wryter / or euer you can ryde / only to see / and salute your houses and liuings / being so many / and so farre distāt one from an other. And if we be so vn∣learned / and holde suche dangerous opinions of Papistrie and Anabaptistry / as you beare men in hand we do / why do you not by the example of the ministers in Germanie / procure a publike disputatiō / where you may both win your spurres / and such detestable opinions / wyth the ignorance of the authors / may be display∣ed vnto the whole world? But let vs heare what is sayd.

Cyprian (sayth he) speaking of the office of an archbyshop. &c. Onles (good reader) thou wilt first beleue that Cyprian speaketh of an archbyshop / and haste before conceiued a strong imagination of it / M. Doctor can proue nothing. Ari∣stotle sayeth that vncunning Painters / wryte the names of the beastes whych they painte in their tables / for because otherwise it coulde not be knowne what they painte: so M. Doctor mistrusting that the archbyshop will not be knowne by his description / wryteth first the name of that he wil paint out.

Thys is it whych we striue about / wherof the cōtrouersy is / and this M. doctor taketh for graunted. He accuseth the authors of the admonition / for faul∣ting in the petition of the principle / or desiring to haue that graunted whych is denyed / & yet I am sure / that in the whole admonition / there is not such a grosse

petition as thys is. Where / or in what wordes dothe S. Cyprian speake of the office of an archbyshop? And heere by the way it is to be obserued of the reader / how neare a kin the Pope and the archbishop be. For this office is confirmed by the same places / that the popes is / the places and arguments which are brought againste hym / are soluted wyth the same solutions that they vse / whych main∣taine the papacie. For these places of Cyprian be alledged for the popes supre∣macye / and in deede they make as muche for the Pope / as for the archbyshoppe. For / although they be two heades / yet they stande vpon one necke / and therfore the reformed churches whych cutte right / did strike them bothe of at one blowe. In neyther of the sentences heere alledged out of Cyprian / nor in all his works / as hath bene before noted / is there one worde of an archbyshop / and yet M. doc∣tor sayeth that he speaketh of an archbyshop.

Before he shewed the name wythout the office / and now he goeth about to shew the office wythout the name / so that he can neuer make bothe the name and office meete together. To shape out an archbyshop heere / you must needes inter∣preate the wordes (byshop and priest) archbyshop and hygh priest / for Cyprian maketh mention of no other name of ministerie in those places. And if you maye haue thys scope of interpreating / it wil not be harde for you / to proue that stones be bread / and that chaulke is cheese. Let vs see what is a byshop or priest (I vse the name of priest against my wil / but because it is sacerdos, & you so trāslate it / that it may be better vnderstanded what I answere to you / I am content to fol∣lowe you so farre) I say let vs consider what is a byshop or priest by S. Cypri∣an / and thereby we shall knowe / what an archbyshop he setteth forthe vnto vs. Whych thing may appeare manifestly / by that which he sayeth in the same Epi∣stle / that the byshop that is appoynted into the place of hym that is dead / is cho∣sen peaceably by the voyce of all the people.

I thincke you will not say that all the people through oute the whole pro∣uince / or through out a whole diocese (as we count a diocese) mette togither / for that had bene bothe a great disorder and confusion / a great charge to the church / and in the time of persecution as that was / to haue offered the whole church in all the prouince / into the mouthe of the wolfe.

And least peraduenture you shoulde haue thys hole to hide your selfe in / saying that it might be procured / that in euery church or parishe through out ey∣ther the prouince or diocese / the consent of the people might be asked / and they ta∣ry in their places where they dwel / Cyprian in the next epistle / doth put the mat∣ter out of all question / saying that the priest (whome he after calleth byshop) is chosen in the presence of the people / & in the eyes of all / so that Cyprians byshop / whome you will needes haue an archbyshop / had neither prouince nor diocese / as we call a diocese / but only a church or congregation / suche as the ministers and pastors wyth vs / whych are appoynted vnto seuerall townes. Which may fur∣ther appeare / in that Cyprian sayeth / that out of one prouince there were. 90. bi∣shops / whych condemned Priuatus. Nowe / if there were. 90. byshops in one prouince whych met / and yet not all that were in that prouince (as may appeare out of the same Epistle) all men do vnderstand that the scope that Cyprians by∣shop or archbyshop (as you will haue him) had / was no suche thing as a diocese or a prouince. I coulde bring infinite testimonies out of Cyprian / to proue that the byshop in his time / was nothing else but S. Paules byshop / that is / one that had cure and charge of one flocke / whych was so placed as it might be taught of hym / and ouerseene by him / and gouerned by hym / and of whom in matters per∣taining to God / it myght depend.

Furthermore / to shape the archbyshop by these places of Cyp. you must be driuen to expound this word (church) prouince. The papistes (which cite thys place for the pope / as you doe for the archbishop) expounde the worde (churche)

heere / to be the whole church vniuersal and catholike / and in dede / although it be falsly expounded so in thys place / yet may they doe it wyth more probability and likelyhode / then to expound it a prouince / forsomuch as these words (the church) is oftner red / both in the scripture / and old wryters / to signify the whole church / then any prouince of one realme. But lette Cyprian expounde him selfe what he meaneth by a church heere / although that may easely appeare by that / whych is spoken of S. Cyprian hys bishop. Wheras Cyprian declareth / that Cornelius the bishop of the church which was in Rome / would not let Felicissimum a No∣uation hereticke / being caste oute by the byshoppes of Affricke / to enter into the church / he declareth sufficiently / that he meaneth that companye of the faithfull / whych were gathered togither at Rome / to heare the word / and to communicate at the sacramentes. For it was not Cornelius part to shutte him out of the pro∣uince / neither indeede could he / him selfe being not able without hazard (by rea∣son of the persecution that then was) to tary in any part of the prouince. Againe / speaking against the Nouatian hereticke / he sheweth that throughe hys wicked opinion of denying of repentance to those that were fallen / the confession of faults in the churche was hindred. Nowe it is manifest that confession was not made through out the prouince / but in that particulare church where the partye dwelt that committed the fault. Therefore Cyprian vnderstandeth by the name of the church / neither diocese (as we call diocese) and muche les a whole prouince. And in the same Epistle / speaking of those whych had fallen / he sayeth / that they durst not come so much / as to the thresholde / or entry of the churche / where he also op∣poseth the church to the prouince / saying that they roue about the prouince / and run about to deceiue the brethren. Seeing therefore / the byshop whych Cyprian speaketh of / is nothing else but such as we call pastor / or as the common name w^t vs is parson / and his church wherof he is bishop / is neither diocese nor prouince / but a congregation whych mete togither in one place / & to be taught of one man / what should M. doctor meane to put on this great name of archbyshop / vpon so small a byshoppricke? as it were Saules great harnes / vpon Dauid hys little body / or as if a man should set a wide huge porche / before a little house.

And least that M. doctor should say / that notwithstanding the bishops had but seuerall churches / yet one of them might haue either a title more excellēt then the rest / or authority and gouernment ouer the rest / that shall be likewise conside∣red out of Cyprian. And first for the title and honor of archbishop / it appeareth how Cyprian held that as a proud name / for that he obiecteth to Florentius as a presumptuous thing / for that in beleuing certaine euill reports of hym / and mis∣iudging of him / he did appoynt him selfe bishop of a bishop / and iudge ouer hym / which was for the time / appoynted of God to be iudge. And heerein also / I may vse the same reasons which the godly writers of our times vse against y^e pope / to proue y^t he had no superiority in those dayes ouer other bishops / for that the other bishops called him brother / and he them / called him fellow bishop / & he them. For so doth Cyprian cal y^e bishops of that prouince in his epistle / his fellow bishops / and in diuers places his brethren. And in the sentence which he spake in the coū∣cel of Carthage / he sayth / none of vs doth take him selfe to be bishop of bishops.

Nowe / that there was no authoritye of one byshop ouer an other / and that there was none suche / as when controuersies roase / tooke vppon hym the com∣pounding of them / or any one to whome it appertained / to see the vnitye of the church kept / and to see that all other bishops / and the cleargy / did their duety (as M. Doctor beareth vs in hand) it may clearely be seene in diuers places of Cy∣prian / and first of all in that sentence / which he spake in the councel of Carthage, where he proceedeth further after this sort / that none of them did by any tiranni∣call feare / binde his felowes in office / or any fellow byshops / to any necessity of o∣bedience / seeing that euery bishop hath for his free libertye and power / hys owne

iudgement or discretion / as one which can not be iudged of an other / as he also hym selfe / can not iudge an other. But (sayth he) we ought to tary and waite for the iudgement of our Lord Iesus Christ / which only / and alone / hath power to set vs ouer hys church / & to iudge of our doing. And in the same Epistle where∣out the first place is taken by M. Doctor / he sayth that vnto euery one a porti∣on of the flocke is appoynted / which euery one must rule and gouerne / as he that shall render an accompt of hys deede vnto the Lord. And in an other place hee sayth / we doe not vse any compulsion or vyolence ouer any / nor appoynt no law to any / seeing that euery one that is set ouer the church / hath in the gouernment / the free disposition of hys owne will / whereof he shall geue an accompt vnto the Lord. And yet Cyprian was the byshop of the metropolitane or cheefe seate / and one whome for hys learning and godlynesse / the rest no doubt had in great reue∣rence / and gaue great honor vnto.

And whereas it is sayde for the preseruation of vnitie / one must be ouer all / S. Cyprian sheweth / that the vnitie of the church is conserued / not by hauing one byshop ouer all. But by the agreement of the byshops / one with an other. For so he wryteth that the church is knit and coupled together (as it were with the glew) of the byshops consenting one with an other / and as for the compoun∣ding of controuersies / it is manyfest / that it was not done by one byshop in a prouince / but those byshoppes whych were neere the place where the schisme or heresie sprang.

For / speaking of the appeasing of controuersies / and schismes / and shewing how dyuers byshops were drawne into the heresie of Nouatus / he sayth / that the vertue and strength of the Christians was not so decayed or languished / but that there was a portion of priestes / which dyd not geue place vnto those ruines / and shipwrackes of fayth.

And in an other place he sayth: therefore most deare brother / the plentifull body or company of y^e priests / are as it were with the glew of mutuall concorde & bande of vnitie ioyned together / that if any of our company be author of an here∣sie / and goe about to destroy and rent the flocke of Christ / the rest should helpe / and as profitable & mercifull shepheards / gather together the sheepe of the Lord: wherby it is manifest / that the appeasing & composing of controuersies / & heresies was not then thought to be most fitte to be in one byshops hand / but in as many as coulde conueniently assemble together / according to the danger of the heresie which sprang / or deepe roote which it had taken / or was like to take. And that there was in his time no such authoritie geuen / as that any one might remoue the causes or controuersies which rose / as now we see there is / when the byshop of the diocese / taketh the matters in controuersie / which rise in any church within hys diocese / from the minister and elders / to whome the decision pertayneth / and as when the archbyshop taketh it away from the byshop / it may appeare in y^e same thirde Epistle of the first booke / where he sayth after this sort. It is ordayned / & it is equall and right / that euery mans cause shoulde be there hearde / where the fault was committed. And a little after he sayth: It is meete to handle the mat∣ter there / where they may haue both accusers / and witnesses of the fault / whiche although it be spoken of them / which fied out of Affrike vnto Rome / yet the rea∣son is generall / and doth as wel serue agaynst these Ecclesiasticall persons / which will take vnto them the decyding of those controuersies that were done a hun∣dreth mile of them.

And whereas M. Doctor in both places of Cyprian / semeth to stand much vpon the wordes (One Byshop and priest) the reason thereof doth appeare in an other place of Cyprian / most manifestly / and that it maketh no more to proue that there ought to be one archbyshop ouer a hole prouince / then to say / that there ought to be but one husbande proueth / that therefore there should be but one hus∣bande

in euery countrey or prouince / which shoulde see that all the rest of the hus∣bandes / doe their dueties to their wyues. For thys was the case. A Nouatian hereticke being condemned / and cast out of the churches of Affrica / by the con∣sent of the byshops / & not able by embassage sent to them to obtayne to be receiued to their communion and fellowship agayne / goeth afterwardes to Rome / and being lykewise there repelled / in tyme getteth hym selfe by certayne which fauou∣red hys heresie / to be chosen byshop there at Rome (Cornelius being the byshop or pastor of those which were there godly mynded) whereupon it commeth / that Cyprian vrgeth (one byshop / one priest in the church) because at Rome there was two / whereof one was a wolfe / which ought not to haue bene there / consi∣dering there was but one church / which was gathered vnder the gouernmēt of Cornelius. And therefore by that place of Cyprian it can not be gathered / that there ought to be but one byshop in one citie / if the multitude of professors require more / and that all can not well gather them selues together in one congregation / to be taught of one man / much lesse can it serue to proue / that there should be but one in a whole diocese or prouince. I graunt that in later tymes / and which went more from the simplicitie of the primitiue church / they tooke occasion of these wordes to decree / that there should be but one byshop in a citie / but that can ne∣uer be concluded of Cyprians wordes / if it be vnderstanded why he vrgeth one byshop and one priest. If therefore neyther word (byshop nor priest) do make a∣ny thing to proue an archbyshop / nor thys worde (church) doth imply any pro∣uince / nor in these wordes (one byshop one priest) there is nothing lesse ment / then that there should be one archbyshop ouer all the byshops and cleargie in a prouince / and if Cyprian will neyther allow of the title of archbyshop / nor of the authoritie and office / but in playne wordes speaketh agaynst both / we may con∣clude / that M. Doctor hath done very vnaduisedly / to lay so great waight of the archbyshop vppon S. Cyprians shoulders / that w••ilnot only not beare any thing of hym / but which hath done all that coulde be / to make hym goe a foote / and hand in hand with hys fellowes. There are other reasons which M. Doctor vseth / as thys / a notable one. S. Cyprian speaketh not of the vsurped power of the by∣shop of Rome / therefore he speaketh of the office of an archbyshop and metropo∣litane. It is hard to call thys argument to any head of fallation / for it hath not so much as a colour of a reason / & I thincke it can deceiue no body but your self. An other reason is / that all the godlyest & best learned mē do expound the place of Cy∣prian in the 3. Epist. of the first booke of an archbyshop. The vanitie of thys say∣ing / that the godly & learned wryters so expound it / I haue shewed before / and heere it commeth to be considered agayne. I will not say that no godly nor learned wryter / expoundeth the place of Cyprian of the authoritie of an archbishop.

But first I desire M. Doctor to set downe but one / and then I will leaue it to thy consyderation (gentle reader) to thincke / whether M. Doctor hath red any learned or godly mans exposition to be suche / when he hath not red those which are nearest hym / I meane our owne countrey men. I say he hath not red them / because I woulde thinke charitably so of hym / rather then that he shoulde haue red them / and yet speake vntruely of them / and father those things of them / which they neuer speake.

M. Iewell the byshop of Sarisburie expounded thys place / and yet dyd ne∣uer expounde it / of the office and authoritie of an archbyshop of all the byshops / and clergie of the prouince / but cleane contrarywise applyeth it to the authoritie that euery byshop had in hys diocesse / hys wordes are these: Now therefore to draw that thing by violence to one only byshop / that is generally spoken of all byshops / is a guilefull fetch to misseleade the reader / and no simple nor playne dealing. Heere you see that M. Iuel doth not vnderstande thys of any archby∣shop / but of euery byshop.

M. Nowel Deane of Poules / hauing occasion to speake of this place / sayth on thys sort. So that when he speaketh (meaning Cyprian) of one byshop / one iudge in the churche / for the time / or of the byshop whych is one / and ruleth the church absolutely / he meaneth euery byshop in his owne diocesse wythout excep∣tion. If he speake specially / he meaneth the byshop of the citye or diocese wherof he entreateth / whether it be the byshop of Rome / Carthage / or any other place.

M. Fore also expoundeth thys of euery byshop wythin hys owne churche or diocese. You heare the iudgement of these three wryters / that can not picke out neyther the name / nor the office of an archbyshop out of Cyprians place / and yet I thinke you wil not deny / but these were learned and godly wryters. Now I haue shewed you three / I aske once againe of you one godlye and learned wryter / that expoundeth it as you doe. And by thys time I suppose all men vn∣derstande / what a small friend S. Cyprian is / eyther to the name or office of an archbyshop. Let vs heare whether Ierome make any more for the archbyshop / then did Cyprian.

The Hebrues doe deriue the name of time of a verbe / whych signifyeth to corrupt / because in dede it doth corrupt all / and as the times are / so are mē which liue in them / that euen very good men carye the note of the infection of the times / wherin they liue / and the streame of the corruption therof / being so vehemēt and forcible / doth not only driue before it / light things / but it cateth also and weareth the very hard and stony rockes / and therfore there is not to be loked for / such sin∣ceritie at Ierome his hand / whych we found in S. Cyprian / considering that he liued some ages after Cyprian / what time sathan had a great deale more darkned the cleare light of the sonne of the gospell / then it was in S. Cyprians time. For as those that came nearest vnto the apostles times / because they were nearest the light ▪ did see best / so those that were further of from these lightes / had / vntill the time of the manifestation of the sonne of perdition their heauens more darke and cloudy / and consequētly did see more dimly / whych is diligently to be obserued of the reader / bothe the better to vnderstand the state of thys question / and all other controuersies whych lie betweene vs and the papistes.

And although Ierome besides his other faultes / might haue also in thys matter spoken more soundly / yet we shall easely perceiue / that he is a great deale further / from eyther the title or office of an archbyshop / or else from the authority that a byshop hath with vs / then he is from the simplicity of the ministery which ought to be / and is commended vnto vs by the worde of God.

And heere I must put M. Doctor in remembrance / howe vnfitly he hath dedicated his boke vnto the churche / whych hath so patched it / and peeced it of a number of shreds of the doctors / that a sentence of the scripture / eyther truely or falsely alledged / is as it were a Phenix in thys boke. If he would haue had the church beleue hym / he oughte to haue setled their iudgement / and grounded their faith vpon the scriptures / whych are the only foundations whervpon the church may build. Nowe he doth not only not geue them grounde to stand of / but he lea∣deth them into wayes whych they can not folowe / nor come after him. For / ex∣cept it be those whych are learned / and besides / haue the meanes and abilitye / to haue the bokes whych are heere cited (which are the least and smallest portion of the church) how can they know that these things be true whych are alledged / and as I haue said / if they could know / yet haue they nothing to stay them selues vp∣on / and quiet their conscience / in allowing that which M. Doctor would so faine haue them like of. Therefore he might haue much more fitly dedicated his booke vnto the learned and riche / whych haue furnished libraries.

Ierome sayeth / that at the first / a byshoppe and an Elder (whych you call priest) were all one / but afterward through factions / & schismes / it was decreed / that one should rule ouer the rest. Now I say against this order (that the bishop

shoulde beare rule ouer all) that which our sauioure Christ sayth vnto the Pha∣rises / from the beginning it was not so / and therefore I require that the first or∣der may stande / which was / that a byshop & elder were all one. And if you place so great authoritie agaynst the institution of God in a mortall man: heare what Tertullian sayth vnto you.

That is true / whatsoeuer is first: and that is false / whatsoeuer is later.

Ierome and you / confesse that thys was first / that the byshop was all one with the elder / and first also by the word of God / then I conclude that that is true. You both doe likewise confesse that it came after that one bare rule ouer the rest / then I conclude that that is false / for all that is false that is later. Further∣more Ierome in the same place of Titus sayth after thys sort. As the elders know them selues to be subiect by a custome of the church vnto hym that is set o∣uer them: so the byshops must know that they are greater then the elders / rather by custome then by any truth of the institution of the Lord / and so they ought to gouerne the church in common.

Now / seing that Ierome confesseth that a byshop and an elder / by God his institution are all one / and that custome of the church hath altered thys instituti∣on / for the taking away of thys custome and restoring of the Lordes institution / I say as our sauiour Christ sayd / why doe you breake the commaundementes of God / to establishe your owne traditions? for the one is the institution of God / and the other the tradition of the church / and if a mans testimony be so much with M. Doctor / let hym heare what the same Tertullian fayth: whatsoeuer sauou∣reth agaynst the truth / shall be accompted heresie / euen although it be an olde cu∣stome. Now I will turne M. Doctors owne argument vpon hys head / after thys sorte. In the apostles tymes there were schismes and heresies / but in their tymes there were no archbyshops ordayned to appease them / therefore the best meanes of composing of controuersies / and keping concorde / is not by hauing an archbyshop to be ouer a whole prouince. That there was none in the apostles tymes / thus it may appeare. If there were any / they were eyther ordayned by the apostles and their authoritie / or else without / and besides their authoritie. If there were any without / and besides their authoritie / then they are therefore to be condemned the more / because in their tymes they starte vp without their war∣rant. And if the apostles dyd ordayne them / there was some vse of them to that wherunto they were ordayned / but there was no vse of them / to that wherunto they were ordayned / therefore the apostles dyd not ordayne them. The vse wher∣unto M. Doctor sayth they were ordayned / was to compose controuersies / and end schismes / but to thys they were not vsed / whereupon it followeth / that if there were any / they were vnprofitable. That they were not vsed to any such ende / it shall be perceiued by that which followeth.

At Antioche there rose a great and daungerous heresie / that had in a man∣ner infected all the churches / which shaked the very foundation of the saluation of Gods children / that was / whether fayth were sufficient to iustifie without circumcision. The matter was disputed of both sides / it could not be agreed of. What doe they now? Doe they ordayne some Archbishop / Archprophet / Archa∣postle / or any one cheefe to whome they will referre the controuersie / or vppon whome they will depend? nothing lesse. And if they would haue had the contro∣trouersies ended by one / what deuine was there euer / or shall there be more fit∣ter for that purpose then S. Paule / which was amongst them? Why doe they sende abrode for remedy / when they had it at home? why with great charges and long iourneys / which they might haue had without charges / or one foote set out of the dore? what doe they then? They sende Paule and Barnabas to Ierusa∣lem / as if the lesser townes / should send to the churches of the vniuersities / and of London / to desire their helpe in the determining of the controuersie. And what

is Paule and Barnabas ambassage / is it to desire the iudgement or minde of some one? it must needes be answeared wyth S. Luke / that they came to know the resolution of the churche / and yet there were the apostles / wherof euery one was better able both sharply to see / and to iudge incorruptly wythout affection / then any archbyshop that euer was. If therfore in so great aboundance & ouer∣flowing of the gifts of God / and in that time when as controuersies might haue bene referred wythout daunger of error vnto one only / thys ministerie of one a∣boue all / was not thought good: now / when the gifts are les / and the danger of error more / to make an archbyshop for the deciding of controuersies / and auoi∣ding of schismes / is a thing so straunge / that I am not able to see the reason of it. For to whych so euer of the apostles the controuersy had bene referred / it is cer∣taine that he would haue geuen a true sentence of it.

And if any can shew me one man in these times / of whom we may be assu∣red / that he will pronounce the truth of euery question whych shall arise / he shall make me somewhat more fauorable to the archbyshop / then presently I am. For although there were found one such as could not erre / yet I could not consent that the matter should lye only vpon his hand / seeing that the apostles whych could not erre in these matters / would not take that vpon them / and seeing that by that meanes the iudgement of the church should be contemned / and further / for that the iudgement of one man in a controuersy / is not so strong to pull vp errors that are rooted in mennes minds / as the iudgement and consent of many. For / that the iudgement of many is very apt either to confirme a truth / or to cō∣fute falshode / it is euident that S. Paule doth hold forth / as it were a buckler against the frowardnes of certaine / the authority of the church.

Furthermore / if this distinction came vp in the apostles time / and by them / how commeth it to pas / that they neuer mention it / nay / how commeth it to pas that euen S. Paule in that very Epistle where these voyces are found (I hold of Paule / I of Apollo / I of Cephas whych are sayd to be the cause of the arch∣byshop / ) ordaineth a cleane contrary to thys that M. Doctor commendeth? For when two or three prophets haue expounded the scriptures / he appoynteth that all the rest that are there / should iudge whether they haue done well or no.

And how commeth it to pas that S. Paule being at Rome in prison / and loking euery day when he should geue vp hys last breath / commended vnto the church a perfect and an absolute ministery / standing of .v. parts / wherin he ma∣keth mention / not one word of an archbyshop: and sayeth further / that that mi∣nistery is able to entertain the perfect vnity / and knitting togither of the church? Do not all these things speake / or rather cry / that there was not so much as a step of an archbyshop / in the apostles times? And if you will say / that the apo∣stles did ordaine archbyshops (as you haue in dede sayd / & do now againe) when as there is not one word in the wrytings of them / I pray you tell vs / how we shall hold out of the church / the vnwrytten verities of the papists? for my part / if it be true that you say / I can not tell what to answer vnto them. For our an∣swere is to thē / the apostles haue left a perfect rule of ordering the church wryt∣ten / and therfore we reiect their traditions / if / for no other cause / yet because they are superfluous / and more then neede. Now this degree of archbishop / being not only not mentioned in the scriptures / but also manifestly oppugned / it is too bold and hardy a speache (that I say no more) to fetch the petegree of the archbyshop / from the apostles times / and from the apostles them selues. But all thys time M. Doctor hath forgotten hys question / whych was to proue an archbyshop / wheras all these testimonies whych he alledgeth / make mētion only of a bishop / and therfore thys may rather confirme the state of the byshop in this realme / thē the archbyshop. But in the answere vnto them it shall appeare / that as there is not in these places so much as the name of an archbyshop mentioned / so except

only the name of a bishop / there shalbe found very little agreemēt betwene the bi∣shops in those dayes / and those whych are called byshops in our time / & with vs.

And consequently / although M. doctor thought wyth one whiting boxe / to haue whited two wals (by establishing our archbyshop and byshop by the same testimonies of the fathers) yet it shalbe plaine / that in going about to defend both / he left both vndefended. Let vs therfore come first / to examine Ieroms reasons / why one must be ouer the rest / for in the testimony of men / that is only to be re∣garded / whych is spoken eyther wyth some authority of the scripture / or wyth some reason grounded of the scripture: otherwise / if he speake wythout eyther scripture or reason / he is as easely reiected as alledged. One (sayth he) being cho∣sen to be ouer the rest / bringeth remedy vnto schismes: how so? least euery man (sayeth he) drawing to him selfe / to breake the church in peeces.

But I would aske if the church be not in as great danger / when all is done at the pleasure and lust of one man / and when one caryeth all into error / as when one pulleth one peece wyth him / another an other peece / and the third hys partal∣so wyth him. And it is harder to draw many into an error / then one / or that many should be caryed away by their affections / then one / whych is euident in water / whych if it be but a little / it is quickly troubled and corrupted / but being much / it is not so easely. But by thys ecclesiasticall Monarchie / all things are kept in peace: Nay / rather it hath bene the cause of discord / and well spring of most hor∣rible schisme / as it is to be seene in the very decretals them selues. And admit it were so / yet the peace whych is wythout truth / is more execrable thē a thousand contentions. For / as by striking of two flintes togither / there commeth out fire / so it may be / that sometimes by contention / the truth whych is hidden in a darke peace / may come to light / whych by a peace in naughtines and wickednes / being as it were buryed vnder the ground / doth not appeare.

If therfore superiority & domination of one aboue the rest / haue such force to keepe men from schismes / when they be in the truth / it hath as great force to kepe them togither in error / and so besides that one is easier to be corrupted then many / thys power of one bringeth as great incommodity in keping them in error if they fall into it / as in the truth if they are in it. Moreouer / if it be necessary for the keping of vnity in the church of England / that one archbyshop should be pri∣mate ouer all / why is it not as meete / that for the keping of the whole vniuersall church / there should be one archbyshop / or byshop ouer all / and the like necessity of the byshop ouer all christendome / as of the byshop of all England / vnles per∣aduenture it be more necessary / that there should be one byshop ouer the vniuer∣sall church / then ouer the church of England / for as much as it is more necessa∣ry that peace should be kept / and schismes be auoyded in the vniuersali church / then in the particulare church of England.

If you say that the archbyshop of England / hath hys authority graunted of the Prince / the Pope of Rome will say that Constantine or Phocas / whych was Emperor of all christendome / did graunt him hys authority ouer all chur∣ches. But you will say that it is a lie / but the Pope will set as good a face / and make as great a shew therin / as you do in diuers poynts here. But admit it to be a lie (as in dede it is touching Constantine) yet I say further / that it may come to passe / & it hath ben / that there may be one Christian Cesar ouer all the realmes whych haue churches. What if he then will geue that authority to one ouer all / that one king graunteth in hys land / may any man accept and take at hys hand such authority? and if it be not lawful for him to take that authority / tel me what fault you can finde in him / whych may not be found in them?

It will be sayd that no one is able to do the office of a byshop / vnto all the whole church / neither is there any one able to do the office of a byshop to y^e whole church of England. For when those which haue ben most excellent in knowledge

and wisedome / and most ready and quicke / in doing and dispatching / matters / be∣ing alwayes present / haue found enough to do to rule and gouerne one seuerall congregation: what is he whych (absent) is able to discharge hys duety toward so many thousand churches? And if you take exception / that although they be absent / yet they may do by vnder ministers / as by Archdeacons / Chauncellors / Officials / Commissaries / and such other kinde of people / what doe you else say / then the Pope / whych sayeth / that by hys Cardinalles / and archbyshoppes / and Legates / and other suche like / he doeth all things? For wyth their hands he ru∣leth all / and by their feete he is present euerye where / and wyth their eyes he se∣eth what is done in all places. Let them take heede therfore / least if they haue a common defence wyth the Pope / that they be not also ioyned nearer wyth hym in the cause / then peraduenture they be aware of. Truely it is against my will / that I am constrained to make suche comparisons / not that I thinke there is so great diuersity betweene the Popedome and the archbyshoppricke / but because there being greate resemblance betweene them / I meane / hauing regarde to the bare functions / wythout respecting the doctrine good or badde whych they vp∣holde / that I say there being great resemblance betweene them: there is yet as I am persuaded / great difference betweene the parsons that execute them. The whych good opinion conceyued of them / I we moste humbly beseeche them by the glory of God / by the libertye of the churche purchased by the precious bloude of oure sauioure Christe / and by their owne saluation / that they woulde not de∣ceiue / by retaining so harde / suche excessiue and vniust dominion ouer the church of the liuing God.

But Ierome sayth / that this distinction of a byshop / & a minister or elder / was from s. Marke his time / vnto Dyonisius time / wherby M. doctor would make vs beleeue / that Marke was the author of this distinction. But that can not be gathered by Ieromes words. For besides that things being ordred then by the suffrages of the ministers and elders / it might (as it falleth out of tētimes) be done without the approbation of s. Marke: the words (from Marke) may be rather taken exclusiuely / to shut oute S. Marke / and the time wherin he liued / then inclusiuely / to shut hym in the time wherin thys distinction rose.

How so euer it be / it is certaine that S. Marke did not distinguish & make those thyngs diuers / whych the holy ghoste made all one. For then (whych the Lord forbid) he shoulde make the story of the gospell whych he wrote / suspected.

Againe / it is to be obserued that Ierome sayeth it was so in Alexandria: signifying therby / that in other churches it was not so. And in deede it may ap∣peare in diuers places of the auncient fathers / that they confounded priest & by∣shop / & toke them for all one / as Eusebius out of Ireneus calleth Anicete / Pi∣us / Telesphorus / Higinus / xystus / presbyterous cai prostantas, elders / and pre∣sidents. Cyprian confoundeth priest and byshop in the epistles before recited / so doth Ambrose in the place alledged before by M. doctor / and yet it is one thyng with vs / to be a priest (as M. doctor speaketh) and an other thing to be a bishop.

Ierusalem was a famous church / so was Rome as the apostle witnesseth / so was Antioche and others / where also were great contētions / both in doctrine and otherwise / and yet for auoiding of contention and schisme there / there was no one that was ruler of the rest / therfore we ought rather to folowe these churches being many / in keping vs to the institution of the apostles / then Alexandria being but one church / and departing from that institution / and if there had bene any one set ouer all the rest in other places / it would haue made much for the distinction that Ierome had recited. But against thys distinction of s. Ierome / I will vse no other reason / thē that whych Ierome vseth in the same epistle to Euagrius. Ierome in that epistle / taketh vp very sharply the archd. that he preferred hym selfe before the elder / & the reason is / because by the scripture y^e deacon is inferior

vnto the elder. Now therfore Ierome him selfe confessing that by the scripture a byshop & an elder are equall / by Ieromes owne reason / the byshop is to be sharp∣ly reprehended / because he lifteth hym selfe aboue the elder. But what helpeth it you / that there was a byshop of Alexandria / whych vrge an archbyshop / or what auauntageth it you / that there was one cheefe called a byshop in euery seuerall congregation / whych would proue that there ought to be one byshop / chefe ouer a thousand congregations. What could haue bene brought more strong to pull downe the archbyshop out of hys throne / then that whych Ierome sayeth there / when he affirmeth that y^e byshop of the obscurest village or hamlet / hath as great authority and dignity as the byshop of Rome? Erasmus did see this / and sayd / eironeuomenos, that is iestingly / that Ierome spake that of the byshops of hys times / but if he had sene how the metropolitanes of our age excell other bishops / he wold haue spoken otherwise. And what could haue bene more fit to haue con∣futed the large dominion and superiority of our realme / then that that Ierome sayth / when he appoynteth the byshops sea in an vplandishe towne / or in a pore village or hamlet / declaring therby that in euery towne there was a byshop / and that the bishop that he speaketh of / differeth nothing at all from an elder / but that the byshop had the ordaining of the ministers / whervpon it doth appeare (which I promised to shew) that by this place of Ierome / there is neither name of arch∣byshop / nor so much as the shadow of his authority / and that the byshops whych are now / haue besides the name / no similitude almost with the byshops that were in Ieromes time / as for his reason / ad Luciferanos, it is the same whych he hath / ad Euag. and to Titus / and is already answeared.

What is that to the purpose / that Chrysostom sayth / there must be degrees? who denyeth that there are degrees of functions? we confes there is / and ought to be a degree of pastors / an other of doctors / the third of those whych are called elders / the fourth of deacons. And where he sayth / there should be one degree of byshop / another of a minister / an other of the lay man / what proueth that for the office of an archbyshop / whych is your purpose to shew? how often times must you be called ad Rhombum? And that he meaneth nothingles / then to make any such difference betwene a byshop and a minister / as is wyth vs / which you wold faine make your reader beleue / I will send you to Chrysostome / vpon the third chapter. 1. ep. to Timothe / where he sayeth: The office of a byshop differeth lit∣tle or nothing from an elders / and a little after / that a byshop differeth nothyng from an elder or minister / but by the ordination only. Still M. doctor goeth for∣ward in killing a dead man / that is / in confuting that / whych all men condemne / and prouing that whych no man denyeth / that there must be superiority amongst men / and that equality of all men a like / confoundeth all / and ouerthroweth all.

Thys is a notable argument / there must be some superior among men: ergo, one minister must be superior to an other. Again / there must be in the eccle∣siastical fūctions / some degrees: Ergo, there must be an archbishop ouer the whole prouince / or a bishop ouer the whole diocese. And all be it M. doctor taketh great paine to proue that whych no man denyeth / yet he doth it so euill fauoredly / and so vnfitly / as that if a man had no better proufes then he bringeth / the degrees of the ecclesiasticall functions / myght fall to the ground. For heere to proue the de∣grees of the ecclesiasticall functions / he bryngeth in that / that Chrysostom sayth / there must be magistrate and subiect / hym that commaundeth / and hym that o∣beyeth.

The most therefore that he can conclude of thys / for the mynistery / is / that there must be minister that shall rule / and people that shall be obedient / and heereby he can not proue that there should be any degrees amongst the mini∣sters / and ecclesiasticall gouernors / vnles he will say peraduenture / that as there are vnder Magistrates / and a king aboue them all / so there should be vnder

mynisters / and one mynister aboue them all. But he must remember that it is not necessary in a common wealth / that there should be one ouer all / for that there are other good common wealthes / wherein many haue lyke power and authori∣tie. And further / if because there is one king in a lande aboue all / he will conclude there should be one archbyshop ouer all: I say / as I haue sayde / that it is not a∣gaynst any word of God which I know (although it be inconuenient) but that there may be one Cesar ouer all the world / and yet I thinke M. Doctor will not say / that there may be one archbyshop ouer all the world.

Now M. Doctor commeth to hys olde hole / where he woulde fayne hyde hym selfe / and with hym all the ambition / tyranny / and excesse of authoritie / which is ioyned wyth these functions of archbyshoppe / and byshoppe / as they are now vsed: and thys hys hole is / that all the mynisters are equall with byshops / and archbyshops / as touching the mynisterie of the worde and sacramentes / but not as touching pollicie and gouernment. The papistes vse the very selfe same distinction / for the mayntenance of the Popes tyranny and ambytion / and other their hierarchie.

Maister Doctor hath put out the marke / and conceled the name of the pa∣pistes / and so with a little chaunge of wordes / as it were with certayne new co∣loures / he woulde deceiue vs. For the papistes saye / that euery syr Iohn or hedge priest / hath as great authoritie to sacrifice and offer for the quicke and the dead / and to mynister the sacramentes as the Pope of Rome hath / but for go∣uernment / and for order / the byshoppe is aboue a priest / the archbyshoppe aboue a byshoppe / and the Pope aboue them all. But I haue declared before out of the scriptures / how vayne a distinction it is / and it appeareth out of Cyprian / that as all the byshops were equall one to an other / so he sayth / that to euery one was geuen a portion of the Lordes flocke / not only to feede with the worde and sacra∣mentes / but to rule and gouerne / not as they which shall make any accoumpte vnto an archbyshop / or be iudged of hym / but as they which can not bee iudged of any / but of God. And Ierome vpon Titus sayeth / that the elder or myni∣ster dyd gouerne and rule in common with the byshops / the churche whereof he was elder or mynister.

After followeth M. Caluin / a great patrone forsoth / of the archbyshop / or of thys kynde of byshop which is vsed amongst vs heere in Englande. And heere to passe ouer your straunge cytations and quotations which you make / to put your answerer to payne / sending hym sometymes to Musculus common places for one sentence / to Augustines workes / to Chrysostomes workes / to Cyrill / to Maister Foxe / and heere sending hym to the viij. chapter of the institutions / as though you had neuer red Caluins institutions / but tooke the sentence of some bodye else / withoute anye examination / whereby it seemeth that you were lothe that euer any man should answere your booke / letting I say all thys passe / what maketh thys eyther to proue that there shoulde bee one archbyshoppe ouer all the mynisters in the prouince / or one byshoppe ouer all in the diocese / that amongst twelue / that were gathered together into one place / there was one which ruled the action / for which they mette? And that it may appeare what superioritie it is / which is lawfull amongst the mynisters / and what it is that M. Caluin spea∣keth of / what also the fathers and councels doe meane / when they geue more to the byshoppe of any one church / then to the elder of the same church / and that no man be deceiued by the name of gouernoure or ruler ouer the rest / to fancie any such authoritie and domination or Lordship / as we see vsed in our church / it is to be vnderstanded / that amongst the pastors / elders and deacons of euery par∣ticulare church / and in the meetinges and companies of the mynisters or elders of dyuers churches / there was one chosen by the voyces and suffrages of them all / or the most part / which did propound the matters that were to be handled / whether

they were difficulties to be soluted / or punishmentes and censures to be decreed vpon those which had faulted / or whether there were elections to be made / or what other matter so euer occasion was geuen to entreate of / the which also ga∣thered the voyces and reasons of those which had interest to speake in such cases / whiche also did pronounce according to the number of the voyces whiche were geuen / which was also the mouth of the rest / to admonishe / or to comfort / or to rebuke sharply / such as were to receiue admonishment consolation / or rebuke / and which in a worde dyd moderate that whole action / which was done for the time they were assembled: which thing we do not deny / may be / but affirme that it is fitte & necessary to be / to the auoyding of confusion. For it were an absurde hea∣ring that many should at once attempt to speake / neyther coulde it be done with∣out great reproch / that many men beginning to speake / some should be bidden to holde their peace / which would come to passe / if there should be no order kept / nor none to appoynt / when euery one should speake or not / to put them to silence / when they attempted confusedly to speake / and out of order. Moreouer when many ministers mete together / and in so great dyuersitie of giftes as the Lorde hath geuen to hys church / there be founde that excell in memory / facilitie of tong / and expedition or quicknesse to dispatche matters more then the rest / and there∣fore it is fitt / that the brethren that haue that dexteritie / shoulde especially be pre∣ferred vnto thys office / that the action may be the better / and more spedely made an ende of.

And if any man will call thys a rule or presidentship / and hym that execu∣teth thys office a president or moderator / or a gouernour / we will not striue / so that it be with these cautions / that he be not called simply gouernor or modera∣tor / but gouernor or moderator of that action / and for that time / and subiect to the orders that others be / & to be censured by the company of the brethren / as wel as others / if he be iudged any way faulty. And that after that action ended / & mee∣ting dissolued / he sitte hym downe in hys olde place / and set hym selfe in equall e∣state with the rest of the ministers. Thirdly / that thys gouernment or president∣ship / or what so euer lyke name you will geue it / be not so tyed vnto that minister / but that at the next meeting it shall be lawfull to take an other / if an other bee thought meeter. Of thys order and pollicy of the church / if we will see a liuely i∣mage and perfect paterne / let vs set before our eyes / the most auncient and gospel like church that euer was or shall be.

In the actes / the church being gathered together for the election of an A∣postle into the place of Iudas the traytor / when as the interest of election be∣longed vnto all / and to the apostles especially aboue the rest / out of the whole com∣pany Peter riseth vp / telleth the cause of their comming together / with what cautions and qualities they ought to chuse an other / conceyueth the prayer wher∣by the helpe of God in that election / and his direction is begged / and no doubt ex∣ecuted the residue of the things which pertayned vnto the whole action.

In the seconde of the actes / all the Apostles are accused of drunkennesse / Peter answeareth for thē all / wypeth away the infamy they were charged with. But you will say / where are the voyces of the rest / which did chuse Peter vnto thys. First / you must know that the scripture setteth not downe euery circum∣stāce / & then surely you do Peter great iniury / that aske whether he were chosen vnto it. For is it to bee thought / that Peter would thrust in hym selfe to this of∣fice or dignitie without the consent and allowance of hys fellowes / and preuent hys fellowes of thys preheminence? vndoubtedly / if it hadde not beene done ar∣rogantly / yet it must needes haue a great shew of arrogancye / if hee hadde done thys without the consent of hys fellowes. And heere you shall heare what the Scholiast sayth / which gathereth the iudgement of Greke diuines hora (spea∣king of Peter) panta meta koines auton gnomes poiounta. Behold / how he doth

all with their common consent. And if any man hereupon will say / that Peter exercised domination ouer the rest / or gate any archapostleship / beside that y^e whole story of the actes of the apostles / and his whole course of life doth refute that: the same Scholiast which I made mention of in the same place / sayth he did nothing / archikos, imperiously / nothing meta exousias, with domynion or power. Further / I will admonishe him to take heede / least if he striue so sore for the archbyshop / he slide or euer he be aware into the tentes of the papistes / which vse these places to proue that Peter had authoritie and rule ouer the rest of the apostles.

And that it may bee vnderstanded / that thys moderate rule / voyde of all pompe and outward shew / was not perpetuall / nor alwayes tyed vnto one man (which were the last poyntes of the cautions I put before) turne vnto the 15. of the Actes / where is shewed / how with the rest of the church / the apostles / and amongst them Peter being assembled to decide a great controuersie / Iames the Apostle / and not Peter / moderated and gouerned the whole action / when as af∣ter other had sayd their iudgementes / and namely Paule and Barnabas / & Pe∣ter / he in the ende / in the name of all / pronounced the sentence / and that whereof the rest agreed / and had disputed vnto / and the residue rested in that iudgement / the which also may likewyse appeare in the 21. of the Actes. This is hee which is called the byshop in euery church / thys is he also whome Iustin wherof men∣tion is made afterwardes / calleth proestos. And finally / thys is that great archbi∣shoppricke / and great bishoppricke that M. Doctor so often stumbleth on. This order and preheminence / the Apostles time / and those that were neare them kept / and the nearer they came to the apostles times / the nearer they kept them to this order / and the farther of they were from those times / vntill the discouering of the sonne of perdition / the further of were they from thys moderation / and nearer to that tyranny and ambitious power / which oppressed and ouerlayde the churche of God.

And therefore maister Caluin doth warely say / that one amongst the apo∣stles indefinitely / not any one singular person (as Peter) had the moderation and rule of the other / and further shadoweth out what rule that was / by the exam∣ple of the consul of Rome / whose authoritie was / to gather the senate together / & to tell of the matters which were to be handled / to gather y^e voyces / to pronounce the sentence. And although the Antichrist of Rome had peruerted all good order / and taken all libertie of the church into hys / the Cardinalles / Archbishops / and Byshoppes handes / yet there are some colde and lyght footinges of it in our sy∣nodes / which are holden with the parliament / where amongst all the mynisters which are assembled out of all the whole realme / by the more part of voyces / one to chosen which should goe before the rest / propounde the causes / gather the voy∣ces / and bee as it were the mouth of the whole company / whome they terme the prolocutor. Suche great force hath the truthe / that in the vtter ruines of Po∣pery / it could neuer be so pulled vp by the rootes that a man coulde neuer know the place thereof no more / or that it shoulde not leaue suche markes and printes behinde it / whereby it myght afterwardes recouer it selfe / and come agayne to the knowledge of men.

Now you see what authoritie we allow amongst the ministers / both in their seuerall churches / or in prouinciall sinodes / or nationall / or generall / or what so e∣uer other meetinges shall be aduised of for the profite and edifying of the church / and withall you see / that as we are farre from thys tyranny and excessiue power which now is in the church / so we are (by the grace of God) as farre from confu∣sion and disorder / wherein you trauell so much to make vs to seeme giltie.

M. Doctor reasoneth agayne / that Paule an Apostle / and in the highest degree of ministerie / was superior to Timothe and Titus Euangelistes / and so in a lower degree of mynisterie / therefore one mynister is superior to an other /

one byshop to an other byshop / whych are all one office / and one function. As if I shuld say my Lord Mayor of London is aboue the sherifes / therfore one she∣rife is superior to an other. Again / an other argumēt he hath of the same strēgth. Titus being an Euangelist / was superior to al the pastors in Crete / which was a degree vnder the Euangelists / therfore one pastor must be superior vnto an o∣ther pastor. And that he was superior / he proueth because he had authority to or∣daine pastors / so that the print of the archbyshop is so deepely set in his head / that hereof he can imagine nothing / but that Titus shuld be archbishop of all Crete.

I haue shewed before / how these words are to be taken of S. Paule: and for so much as M. Doctor burdeneth vs wyth the authority of Caluin so often / I wil send him to Caluins owne interpretation vpon this place / wher he shew∣eth y^e Titus did not ordaine by his owne authority / for s. Paul wold not graunt Titus leaue to do that / whych he him self wold not / and sheweth that to say that Titus should make the election of pastors by him selfe / is to giue vnto hym a princely authority / and to take away the election from the church / and the iudge∣ment of the insufficiency of the minister from the company of the pastors / whych were (sayeth he) to prophane the whole gouernment of the church.

I maruell therfore what M. doctor meaneth to be so busy wyth M. Cal∣uin / and to seke confirmation of his archbyshop and byshop at him / whych wold haue shaken at the naming of the one / and trembled at the office of the other / on∣les it be because he would faine haue hys plaister where he receiued hys wound / but I dare assure him / that in his garden / he shall neuer finde the herbe that wil heale him. And because that the scriptures when they make for our cause / receiue this answer commonly / that they serued but for the apostles times / and M. Cal∣uins authority will wey nothing as I thinke wyth M. Doctor / when he is al∣ledged by vs against hym / I wil send hym to the Greke Scholiaste / whych vp∣on this place of Titus sayth after this sort. He would not (speaking of s. Paule) haue the whole Ile of Crete / ministred and gouerned by one / but that euery one should haue hys proper charge and care / for so should Titus haue a lighter la∣bor / and the people that are gouerned / should enioy greater attendance of the pa∣stor / whilest he that teacheth them / doth not run about the gouernment of many congregations / but attendeth vnto one / and garnisheth that.

Now M. Doctor may see by this / that Titus (by the iudgement of the Scholiaste) was not as he fansieth / the archbyshop of all Crete / but that he had one flocke / whervpon (for the time he was there) he attended. And that where it is sayd he ordained ministers / it is nothing else / but that he was the cheefe and the moderator in the election of the ministers / as I haue declared before by ma∣ny examples. And it is no maruell / although the rest graunted hym thys prehe∣minence / when he had both most excellent gifts / and was a degree aboue the pa∣stors / being an Euangelist.

Vnto the place of Timothe / where he willeth him not to admit an accusa∣tion against an elder vnder two or three witnesses / I answer as I haue done be∣fore to the place of Titus / that is / that as the ordination of the pastors is attri∣buted vnto Titus and Timothe / because they gouerned and moderated that ac∣tion / and were the first in it / so also is the deposing or other censures of them / and that for as much as he wryteth hys epistles vnto Timothe & Titus / he telleth them how they should behaue them selues in their office / and doth not shut out other from this censure and iudgement. And it is more agreable to the inscripti∣on of the epistles / that he should say (admit not thou / or ordain not thou) wryting vnto one / then if he should say (ordaine not ye / or admit not ye) as if he should wryte to many / for so should neyther the ending agree wyth the beginning / nor the midst wyth them both. And if this be a good rule / that because Paul biddeth Timothe and Titus to iudge of the faults of the pastors / and to ordain pastors /

therfore none else did but they: Then whereas S. Paule biddeth Timothe that he should commaund & teach / that godlines is profitable to all things / & admoni∣sheth him to be an example of the whole flocke / by your reason he wil haue no o∣ther of y^e mynisters of Ephesus / or of the Ile of Creta / to teach that doctrine / or to be examples to their flockes / & an hundreth such things in the Epistles of Ti∣mothe and Titus / which although they be there particularly directed vnto Ti∣mothe / and Titus / yet do they agree / & are common to them / with all other my∣nisters / yea sometimes vnto the whole flocke.

As for Epiphanius / it is knowne of what authoritie he is in this place / when as by Aerius sides / he goeth about to pricke at the Apostle / whilest he go∣eth about to confute the Apostle which maketh a distinction and difference be∣twene those which the Apostle maketh one / that is / a byshop and an elder / and to spare the credite of Epiphanius / it were better lay that opinion vpon some Pseu∣depiphanius, that is to say counterfaite / which we may do / not without great pro∣babilitie / seeing Augustine sayth / that the true Epiphanius vttereth all after a story fashion / and doth not vse any disputation / or reasoning for the truth agaynst the falshode / and thys Epiphanius is very full of argumentes and reasons / the choyse whereof M. Doctor hath taken.

And whereas M. Doctor citeth Ambrose / Caluin / and other godly wry∣ters / to proue that the mynister is vnderstanded by the word elder or presbiter, he keepeth hys olde wont / by bringing stickes into the woode / and prouing alwayes that which no man denyeth: and yet with the mynister of the word / he also vn∣derstandeth the elder of the church which ruleth / and doth not labor in the word. But therein is not the matter / for I doe graunt that by presbiter, the mynister of the word is vnderstanded / & yet nothing proued of that which M. Doctor would so fayne proue. It is no maruell although you take vp the authors of the admo∣nition for want of logicke / for you vtter great skill your selfe in wryting / which keepe no order / but confound your reader in that thing / which euen the common logicke of the countrey / which is reason / might haue directed you in. For what a confusion of times is thys / to begin with Cyprian / and then come to Ierome and Chrysostome / and after to the scripture / and backe agayne to Ignatius / that was before Cyprian / which times are ill disposed of you / and that in a matter wherein it stode you vpon to haue obserued the order of the tymes. But as for Ignatius place it is sufficiently answered before in that which was answered to Cyprian hys place / for when he sayth the byshop hath rule ouer all / he meaneth no more all in the prouince / then in all the worlde / but meaneth that flocke & con∣gregation / whereof he is byshop or mynister. And when he calleth hym prince of the priestes / although the title be to excessiue and bigge / condemned by Cypri∣an and the councell of Carthage / yet he meaneth no more the prince of all in the diocese as we take it / or of the prouince / then he meaneth the Prince of all the priestes in the world: but those fellow mynisters and elders that had the rule and gouernment of that particulare church and congregation / whereof he was by∣shop / as the great churches haue for the most part both elders which gouerne on∣ly / and mynisters also to ayde one an other / and the principalitie that hee which they called the byshop had ouer the rest / hath bene before at large declared.

But M. Doctor doth not remember that whilest hee thus reasoneth for the authoritie of the byshoppe / hee ouerthroweth hys archbyshoppe quite and cleane / for Ignatius will haue none aboue the byshop but Christ / and hee will haue an archbyshop.

I see a man can not well serue two maisters / but eyther he must displease the one / and please the other / or by pleasing of one / offend the other. For M. Doc¦tor would fayne please / and vpholde both / and yet hys proufes are such / that e∣uery prop that he setteth vnder one / is an axe to strike at the other. But that M.

D. delyteth alwayes wher he might fetch at y^e fountaine / to be raking in ditches / he needed not to haue gone to Iustin Martyr for Proestos, when as S. Paule calleth the mynisters & Elders by thys title. And if thys place of Iustin make for an archbyshop / then in stead of an archbyshop in euery prouince / we shal haue one in euery congregation. For Iustin declareth there / the Leyturgie or maner of seruing God that was in euery church vsed of the Christians. And I pray you let it be considered / what is the office of that proestos, and see whether there be any resemblance in the world / betwene hym and an archbyshop. For he placeth hys office to be in preaching / in conceiuing prayers / in mynistring of the sacra∣mentes. Of any commaundement which he had ouer the rest of the mynisters / or of any such priuiledges as the archbyshop hath / he maketh not one worde. It may be / that the same myght haue the preheminence of calling the rest together / and propounding the matter to the rest of the company / and such lyke as is before declared. As soone as euer you found proestos, you snatched that by and by / and went your wayes / and so deceyue your selfe and others. But if you had red the whole treatise / you should haue founde that he was proestos, of the people / for thus it is written in the same Apologie / Epeita prospheretai to Proestoti ton ad∣elphon artos. Afterwarde bread is brought to the president of the brethren cal∣ling the people as S. Paule doth continually brethren. And therefore these are M. Doctors argumentes oute of Martyrs place. There was a mynister which dyd stande before / or was president of the rest in euery particulare church and congregation / therefore there was an archbyshoppe ouer all the prouince. And agayne / there was one which ruled the people in euery congregation / ther∣fore there was one that ruled all the mynisters through out the whole prouince. And albeit things were in great puritie in the dayes that Iustin liued / in respect of the tymes which followed / yet as there was in other things (which appeare in hys workes / and euen in the ministration of the sacramentes spoken of in that place) corruption / in that they mingled water and wine together / so euen in the ministerie / there began to peepe out some thing which went from the simplicitie of the gospel / as that the name of proestos, which was common to the elders with the ministers of the word / was (as it seemeth) appropriated vnto one.

Another of M. Doctors reasons / for to proue the archbyshop / is / that Cy∣rill maketh mention of an high priest / wherunto I answere / that he that bringeth in a priest into the church / goeth about to bury our sauiour Christ / for although it myght be proued that the worde priest were the same with the Greekes pres∣byteros, yet (as shall appeare in hys place) is the vse of thys word (priest) for a mynister of the gospell very daungerous. And as for hym that bringeth in an high priest into the church / hee goeth about to put our sauiour Christ out of hys office / who is proued in the Epistle to the Hebrues to be the only high priest / and that there can be no more as long as the worlde endureth. And yet if all thys were graunted / you are not yet come to that which you desire to proue / that is / an archbyshoppe. For if you looke in Theodorete / you shall fynde thys woorde archierosyne, which signifyeth the highe priesthoode / to be nothing else but a byshoppricke / and in the. 7. chapter of that booke / and so forth dyuers tymes / you shall haue archiereus, taken for a byshop / as speaking of the councel of Nice / he sayth that there was. 318. archiereis, highe priestes. Now I thincke you wil not say there were. 318. archbyshops. If you do / you are confuted by all eccle∣siasticall wryters that euer I red / which speaking of them / call them byshops.

Chrysostome followeth / which as M. Doctor sayth / ruled not only the church of Constantinople / but the churches of Thracia / Asia / and Pontus / & he sayth it out of Theodorete. But heerin it may appeare / that eyther M. Doc∣tor hath a very euill conscience in falsifying wryters / & that in the poyntes which he in controuersie / or else he hath taken hys stuffe of certayne at the seconde hand

without any examination of it at all. For heere he hath set downe in stead of (had care of the churches in Thracia. &c.) ruled the churches / the Greke is / epoieito ten promethcian, it is translated also (prospexit) so that it appeareth he fetched it neyther from Theodorite in Greeke nor in Latine. And what is thys to proue an archbyshoppe / that he had care of these churches? there is no minister but ought to haue care ouer all the churches through christendome / and to shew that care for them / in comforting or admonishing of them by wryting / or by visiting them / if the necessitie so require / and it be thought good by the churches / and leaue ob∣tayned of the place where he is mynister / vppon some notable and especiall cause / being some man of singular giftes / whose learning and credite may profite much to the bringing to passe of that thing / for the which he is to be sent. After thys sort * S. Cyprian being in Affricke / had care ouer Rome in Europe / and wrote vnto the church there. After thys sort also was * Ireneus byshoppe of Lions / sent by the French churches vnto the churches in Phrigia. And after thys sort haue M. Caluin / and M. Beza bene sent from Geneua in Sauoy / to the chur∣ches of Fraunce.

Now / if you will conclude heereupon / that Cyprian ruled the churche of Rome / or Ireneus the churches of Phrigia / or maister Caluin / or M. Beza the churches of Fraunce / or that they were byshops or archbyshops of those places / you shall but conclude as you were wont to doe / but yet all men vnderstand / that heere is nothing lesse then an archbyshop / or any such byshoppe / as we haue and vse in our church. And if so be that Chrysostome should be byshop or archbyshop of al these churches which were in al Asia / Pontus / Thracia / as you wold geue the reader to vnderstand / you make hym byshop of more churches / then euer the Pope of Rome was / when he was in hys greatest pryde / and hys Empire lar∣gest. For there were sixe presidentships in Thracia / and in Asia there were a ele∣uen Princes / and had seuerall regions or gouernmentes / and in Pontus as ma∣ny / and if he were byshop or archbyshop of all the churches within these domini∣ons / he had neede of a long spone to feede with all. It is certayne therefore / that he was byshop only of the church in Constantinople / and had an eye & a care to those other churches. And that he was byshop of one citie / or of one church / it may appeare by that which I haue before alleaged oute of the Greeke Scholi∣aste vpon Titus / who citeth there Chrysostome / where it is sayd that S. Paule dyd not meane to make one ouer the whole Ile / but that euery one should haue hys proper congregation. &c. * And in an other place he sheweth the difference betweene the Emperour and the byshop / that the one is ouer the world / and the other that is the byshop / is ouer one citie.

Touching Theodorete byshop of Cyrus / to let pas that which the bishops of Egipt cryed in the councell of Calcedon / that he was no bishop / it is to be ob∣serued / that which the Emperoures Theodosius and Valentinian / wryte vnto Dioscorus bishop of Alexandria / that he had commaunded Theodoret byshop of Cyrus / that he should kepe hym selfe vnto hys owne church only: wherby it ap∣peareth / that he medled in moe churches then was mete he should. Besides / that wanteth not suspition y^e he speaketh this of him selfe / especially when he sayth / y^e there was not in all those. 800. churches one tare / y^e is / one hypocrite or euil mā.

Now / that it may appeare what great lykelyhoode there is betwene thys Theodoret / and our Lord byshops and archbyshops / it is to be considered which he wryteth of hym selfe in the Epistle vnto Leo / that is / that he hauing bene. 26. yeares byshop / was knowne of all that dwelt in those partes / that he had neuer house of hys owne / nor field / nor halfepennie / not so much as a place to be buryed in / but had willingly contented hym selfe with a poore estate / belyke he had a ve∣ry leane archbyshoppricke. And if the fat morsels of our byshopprickes & archbi∣shopprickes / were taken & employed to their vses of maintenance of the pore / & of

the mynisters / and of the vniuersities / which are the seede of the mynisterie / I thincke the heate of the disputation / and contention for archbyshops and bishops / would be cooled.

Now good reader thou hearest what M. Doctor hath bene able to take together out of the olde fathers / which he sayth are so playne in thys matter / and yet can shew nothing to the purpose. Heare also what he sayth out of the wryters of our age / all which he sayth (except one or two) are of hys iudgement / and al∣low well of thys distinction of degrees.

Maister Caluin first is cited / to proue those offices of archbyshop / primate / patriarche / the names whereof he can not abyde / and as for hym he approueth only / that there should be some ▪ which when difficult causes arise / which can not bee ended in the particulare churches might referre the matters to sinodes and prouinciall councels and which myght do the offices which I haue spoken of be∣fore of gathering voyces. &c.

But that he lyketh not of those dominations and large iurisdictions or at all of the byshoppes or archbyshops / which we haue now / it may appeare playn∣ly enough / both in that place / when as he will haue hys wordes drawen to no o∣ther then the olde byshoppes / shutting out thereby the byshoppes that now are / as also in other places / and namely vpon the Philippians / where (reasoning a∣gaynst thys distinction betwene pastor and byshop / and shewing that geuing the name of byshop to one man only in a church / was the occasion why he afterward vsurped domynation ouer the rest) he sayth after thys sort: In deede I graunt (sayth he) as the dispositions and manners of men are / order can not stande a∣mongst the mynisters of the woorde / vnlesse one be ouer the rest / I meane (sayth he) of euery seuerall and singuler body / not of a whole prouince / much lesse of the whole worlde.

Now if you will needes haue M. Caluins archbyshop / you must not haue hym neyther ouer a prouince nor diocese / but only ouer one singuler and particu∣ler congregation. How much better therefore were it for you to seeke some other shelter against the storme then maister Caluins / which will not suffer you by a∣ny meanes to couer your selfe vnder hys winges / but thrusteth you out alwayes as soone as you enter vpon him forceably.

But heere I can not let passe M. Doctors ill dealing / which recyting so much of maister Caluin / cutteth hym of in the waste and leaueth quite out that which made agaynst hym / that is which maister Caluin ••ayth in these wordes: Although (sayth he) in thys disputacion / it may not be passed ouer / that this office of archbyshop or patriarke was most rarely and seldome vsed / which dealing se∣meth to proceede of a very euill conscience.

Then followeth Hemingius / who you say approueth these degrees of arch∣bishop / metropolitane / byshop / archdeacon / for so you must needes meane / when you say he approueth these degrees / or els you say nothing / for there vpon is the question. Now how vntruely you speake (let it be iudged by that which follow∣eth. * First he sayth that our sauiour Christ in S. Luke distinguisheth and put∣teth a difference / betwene the office of a Prince and the office of the minister of the church / leauing domynion to the Princes / and taking it altogether from the mynisters. Here you see / not only how he is agaynst you in your exposition in the place of S. Luke / which wold haue it nothing else but a prohibition of ambitiō / but also how at a word / he cutteth the throte of your archbyshop and byshop / as it is now vsed. And afterward speaking of y^e churches of Denmarke / he sayth they haue Christ for their head & for the outwarde discipline / they haue magistrates to punish with the sword / & for to exercise the Ecclesiasticall disciplyne / they haue bi∣shops / pastors / doctors / which may keepe men vnder with the word / without v∣sing any corporall punishment. Here is no mention of archbyshops / Primates

metropolitanes. And although he sheweth that they kepe the distinction betwene byshops and ministers / against whych there hath bene before spoken: yet he sayth that the authority which they haue / is as the authority of a father / not as the po∣wer of a maister / whych is far otherwise heere. For the condition of many ser∣uaunts vnder their maisters / is much more free then the condition of a minister vnder hys byshop. And afterward he sheweth wherin that authority or dignity of the byshop ouer the minister lyeth / that is in exhorting of him / in chiding of hym / as he doth the lay people / and yet he will haue also the minister / although not with such authority / after a modest sort to do the same vnto the byshop. And so he concludeth / that they retain these orders / notwithstanding the anabaptists. Now let the reader iudge / whether Hemingius be truely or faithfully alledged or no / or whether Hemingius do say that they haue in their church archbishops / primates / metropolitanes / archdeacons / or whether the byshops in the churches of Denmarke / are any thing like oures. For I will omit that he speaketh there against all pomp in the ministery / all worldly superiority or highnes / because I loue not to wryte out whole pages / as M. Doctor doth out of other mens wry∣tings / to helpe to make vp a boke.

M. doctor closeth vp this matter wyth M. Foxe / but eyther for feare that the place should be found that there might be answer / or for feare that M. Foxe should giue me the solution whych hath giuen you the obiection / he wold neither quote the place of the boke / nor the boke it self / he hauing wrytten diuers. You cā not speake so much good of M. Foxe / whych I will not willingly subscribe vn∣to. And if it be any declaration of good will and of honor / that one beareth to an other / to read that whych he wryteth / I thinke I haue red more of him / then you. For I haue red ouer his boke of Martyrs / and so I thinke did neuer you. For if you had red so diligently in M. Foxe / as you haue ben hasty to snatch at this place / he would haue taught you the forgery of these Epistles / whereout you fetch your authorities / and would haue shewed you that the distinguishing of the orders of metropolitanes / bishops / and other degrees / whych you say sometimes had their beginnings in the apostles times / somtimes you can not tell whē / were not in Higinus time / which was a. 180. yeres after Christ. I perceiue you fear M. Foxe is an ennemy vnto your archbyshop and primate / & therfore it seemeth you went about to corrupt hym wyth hys praise / and to seeke to drawe hym / if it were possible / vnto the archbyshop / and if not / yet at the least that he would be no ennemy / if he would not / nor could not be his frend. You make me suspect that your praise is not harty / but pretended / because you do so often & so bitterly speake against all those that will not receiue the cap and surplice / and other ceremonies / wherof M. Fox declareth his great misliking. For answer vnto y^e place / because I remēber it not / nor meane not to read ouer y^e whole boke to seeke it / I say first as I said before / that there may be some thing before or after / which may geue the solution to this place / especially seeing M. Foxe in another place / prouing the Epistles of Stephanus to be counterfet / he vseth thys reason: because the fifthe Canon of the sayd Epistles / solemnely entreateth of the difference betwene pri∣mates / metropolitanes / and archbyshops / whych distinction (sayth he) of titles and degrees / sauor more of ambition thē persecution. Moreouer I say / that M. Foxe wryting a story / doth take greater paine / and loketh more diligently to de∣clare what is done / and in what time / and by whom / then how iustly or vniustly / how conueniently or inconueniently it is done. Last of all / if any thing be spoken there to the hinderance of the sincerity of the gospell / I am well assured that M. Foxe / whych hath trauailed so much and so profitably to that end / will not haue hys authority or name therin to bring any preiudice. Now wil I also wyne with you / and leaue it to the iudgement of the indifferent reader / how well out of the scriptures / councels / wryters old and new / you haue proued either the lawfulnes

at all of the names of archbishops / patriarches / archdeacons / primates / or of the lawfulnes of the office of them / and of byshops whych be in our times.

And for as much as I haue purposed to answer in one place / that which is scattered in diuers / I will heere answere halfe a shete of paper / whych is annex∣ed of late vnto thys boke put forthe in the name / and vnder the credite of the B. of Salisbury. Wherin I wil say nothyng of those byting & sharpe words / which are giuen partly in the beginning / when he calleth the propounders of the propo∣sition whych concerneth archbyshops and archdeacons nouices / partly in the end when he calleth them children / and the doctrine of the gospell wantonnes. &c. If he had liued / for hys learning and grauitye / and otherwyse good desertes of the church / in defending the cause therof agaynst the papistes / we coulde haue easely borne it at hys handes: nowe he is deade and layde vp in peace / it were agaynste all humanitye to dygge or to breake vp hys graue / only I wil leaue it to the con∣sideration of the reader vpon those things whych are alledged / to iudge / whether it be any wantonnes or noueltye whych is confirmed by so graue testimonyes of the auncient worde of God. Vnto the place of the. 4. of the Ephesians before al∣ledged / he answeareth cleane contrary to that whych M. Doctor sayth / that we haue nowe neyther Apostles / nor Euangelists / nor Prophets / wherevppon he wold conclude that that place is no perfect paterne of the ministery in the church. In deede it is true / we haue not / neyther is it nedefull that wee should. It was therfore sufficient that there were once / and for a time / so that the wante of those nowe / is no cause whye the minysteries there recited / be not sufficient for the ac∣complyshment and full fynishing of the church / nor cause whye anye other miny∣steries should be added / besydes those whych are there recyted.

Afterward he saith / that neither byshop nor elder are reckned in that place. The pastor is there reckened vp / and I haue shewed / that the pastor and byshop / are all one / and are but dyuers names to signifye one thyng. And as for those el∣ders whych doe only gouerne / they are made mention of in other places / the apo∣stles purpose being to recken vp here only / those minysteries / whych are conuer∣sant in the worde as I haue before alledged / and therefore the byshop and elder whych wyth gouernment teache also are there contained.

After that / he sayeth there is no catechista, if there be a pastor / or as some thynke Doctor / there is one whych bothe can / and ought to instruct the youth / neyther doth it pertayne to any other in the churche / and publykely to teache the youth in the rudiments of religion / then vnto eyther the pastor or doctor / how so euer in some times and places / they haue made a seuerall office of it.

And where he sayth that there is neyther deacon nor reader mentioned / for the deacon I haue answeared that s. Paul speaketh there only of those functiōs whych are occupyed both in teachyng and gouernyng the churches / and therfore there was no place there to speake of a deacon / and as for the reader / it is no such office in the churche / whych the minister may not doe. And if eyther he haue not leysure / or his strength and voyce wil not serue hym / first to read some long time / and afterwarde to preache: it is an easye matter to appoynt some of the elders or deacons / or some other graue man in the church to that purpose / as it hathe bene practised in the churches in times past / and is in the churches reformed in oure dayes without making any new order or office of the ministery. Where he sayth / that by thys reason we should haue no churches / pulpits / schooles / nor vniuersi∣ties: it is first easely answeared that S. Paule speaketh not in the. 4. to the E∣phesians / of all things necessary for the churche / but only of all necessary ecclesia∣sticall functions / whych do both teach & gouerne in the church / and then I haue already shewed that there were both churches and pulpits.

As for scholes and vniuersities / it is sufficient commaundement of them / in that it is commaunded / that bothe the magistrates and pastors should be lear∣ned

/ for he that commaundeth that they shoulde be learned / commaundeth those things and those meanes / wherby they may most conueniently come to that lear∣ning. And we haue also examples of them commended vnto vs in the old Testa∣ment. As in the boke of the Iudges / when Debora commendeth the vniuersity men / and those whych handled the pen of the wryter / that they came out to helpe in the battell against the enemies of God. And in the boke of Samuel / and of the Kings / where Nayothe and Bethel / Ierycho / and a place beyond Iordan / are specified places / whych were scholes or vniuersities / where the schollers of the Prophets / were brought vp in the feare of God / and good learning. The conti∣nuaunce of whych scholes and vniuersities amongste the people of God / maye be easely gathered of that whych S. Luke wryteth in the Actes / where it may ap∣peare that in Ierusalem there were certen Colledges appoynted for seuerall countrey men / so that there was one Colledge to receiue the Iewes and Prose∣lites whych came out of Cilicia / an other for those y^t came out of Alexandria. &c. to study at Ierusalem. And if any man be able to shew such euidence for archby∣shops and archdeacons / as these are for vniuersities and scholes / I wil not deny but it is as lawfull to haue them / as these.

Furthermore / he sayeth that the church is not gouerned by names / but by offices: so is it in deede. And if the office of an archbyshop or archdeacon can be shewed / we will not striue for the name / but for so much as all the nedefull offices of the church togither wyth their names / are mentioned in the scripture / it is tru∣ly sayde / that bothe the offices and names of archbyshop and archdeacon / (being not only not contained in them / but also condēned) ought to be banished out of the churche.

Last of all / he sayth / that Anacletus (if there be any waight in his words) nameth an archb. I haue before shewed what waighte there is in his woordes / and I refuse not that he be weyghed wyth the byshops owne weightes / whych he geueth vs in the handling of the article of the supremacye / and in the. 223. and 224. pages / by the whych waightes appeareth / that thys Anacletus is not only lyght / but a plaine counterfait.

The second reason whych sayeth that the churche of God vnder the lawe / had all thyngs needefull appoynted by the commaundement of God / the byshop sayeth he knoweth not what could be concluded of it. I haue shewed before that there is nothyng les ment / then that the church vnder the gospell / should haue all those thyngs that that church had / or shoulde haue nothing / whych that had not: but thys therevpon is concluded / that the Lord whych was so carefull for that / as not to omit the least / would not be so careles for this church vnder the gospel / as to omit the greatest.

And where he sayeth / that there was then whych was called highe priest / and was ouer all the rest: he did well know that the cause therof was / because he was a figure of Christe / and dyd represent vnto the people / the cheefetye and su∣perioritye of oure sauioure Christe whych was to come / and that oure sauioure Christe being come / there is nowe no cause why there should be any such prehe∣minence geuen vnto one: and further / that it is vnlawfull that there shoulde be any suche / vnles it be lawfull to haue one head▪ byshop ouer all the church. For it is knowne / that that prieste was the heade priest ouer all the whole Churche / whych was during hys time vnto our sauioure Christe. And as for those titles / cheefe of the sinagogue / cheefe of the sanctuary / cheefe of the house of God / I say that that maketh muche agaynst archbyshoppes and archdeacons / for when as in steade of the sinagogue / and of the sanctuarie / and of the house of God or Tem∣ple / are come particulare churches and congregations / by this reason it foloweth / that there shoulde be some cheefe / not in euery prouince or diocese / but in euery congregation: and in dede so ought there to be certen cheefe in euery cōgregation /

whych should gouerne and rule the rest. And as for the cheefe of the families of the Leuites / and cheefe of the families of the priestes / the same was obserued in all other tribes of Israell as a ciuile thyng. And by all these princes ouer euery tribe and family / as by the Prince of the whole land / God did / as it were by di∣uers liuely pictures unprint in their vnderstanding / the cheefety and domination of our sauior Christ. Moreouer these orders and pollicies touching the distribu∣tion of the offices of the Leuites and priests / and touching the appoyntment of their gouernors / were done of Dauid by the aduise of the prophets / Gad & Na∣than / whych receiued of the Lord by commaundement / that whych they deluie∣red to Dauid. And if so be that it can be shewed / that archbyshops and archdea∣cons / came into the church by any commaundement of the Lord / then thys alle∣gation hath some force / but now being not only not commaunded / but also (as I haue shewed) forbiddē / euery man doth see that this reason hath no place / but ser∣ueth to the vtter ouerthrow of the archbyshop and archdeacon. For if Dauid be∣ing such a notable personage / and as it were an angell of God / durst not take vp∣on him to bring into the church any orders or pollicies / not only not against the word of God / but not without a precise word and commaundement of God / who shall dare to be so bold / as to take vpon him the institution of the cheefe office of the church / and to alter the pollicy that God hath established by hys seruauntes the apostles?

And where the byshop sayth / it is knowne and confessed / that there wanted many things to y^e perfection of the church of the Iewes: truely I do not know / nor can not confes / that that church wanted any thing to the perfection of that estate / whych the Lord would haue them be in / vntill the comming of our sauior Christ: and if there were any thing wanting / it was not for want of good lawes and pollicies / (wherof the question is / ) but for want of due execution of them / whych we speake not of.

For the two last reasons against the archbyshop and archdeacon / although I be well acquainted wyth diuers / that fauor this cause / yet I did neuer heare them before in my life: and I beleeue they cannot be proued to be hys reasons / whose they are supposed to be / and whych did set downe that proposition / that the byshop confuteth. Notwithstanding / the former of these two seemeth to haue a good probability / and to be grounded of that place of Logicke / that sheweth / that according as the subiect or substance of any thing is excellent / so are those things that are annexed and adioyned vnto it. But because I wold the simplest should vnderstand what is sayd or written / I will willingly abstaine from such rea∣sons / the termes wherof are not easely perceiued / but of those whych be learned.

And as for the answer whych the byshop maketh / that in place of apostles / prophets / the gifts of tongues / of healing / and of gouernment / are brought in v∣niuersities / scholes / byshops / and archbyshops: for scholes and vniuersities / I haue shewed / they haue bene alwayes / and therfore can not come in / to supply the roume of the apostles and prophets. And whether a man consider the schollers that learne / or the scholemaisters whych teach / or the orders appoynted for the gouernment of the scholes / they shall be found to be rather ciuill then ecclesiasti∣call: and therfore can not come in stead of any ecclesiasticall ministery. If the by∣shop do meane that they come in place of the gift of tongues / and knowledge of the gospell that was first geuen miraculously / I graunt it / and then it maketh nothing to this question.

As for byshops / they can not come in place of apostles or prophets / for as much as they were when the Apostles / Euangelists / and Prophets were: and are one of those ministeries / whych S. Paul mentioneth in the. 4. to the Ephe∣sians / being the same that is the pastor.

There remaineth therfore the archbyshop / whych if he came in place of the

Prophets and apostles (as the byshop sayeth) howe commeth it to pas / that the byshop sayeth by and by oute of the authoritye of Erasmus / that Titus was an archbyshop: for at that time / there was bothe apostles / prophets / and Euange∣lists. If it be so therfore / that the archbyshop must supply the want of apostles. &c. howe commeth it to pas / he wayteth not hys time whilest they were deade / but commeth in / like vnto one whych is borne oute of time / and like the vntimely and hasty frute / whych is seldome or neuer wholesome. And for one to come into the apostles or prophets place / requireth the authority of him whych ordained the apostles. &c. whych is the Lord / and hys institution in hys word / whych is that whych we desire to be shewed. But heereof I haue spoken before at large. The necessity of Deanes I do not acknowledge / and I haue already spoken of them. Touching Prebendaries / I shall haue occasion to speake a worde heereafter. For Earles and Dukes / and such like titles of honor / they are ciuil / neither doth it folowe / that because there may newe titles or newe offices be brought into the ciuile gouernement / that therefore the same may be attempted in the church. For God hath left a greater liberty in instituting thyngs in the common wealth / then in the churche.

For / for so much as there be diuers common wealthes / and diuers formes of common wealthes / and all good / it falleth oute / that the offices and dignityes whych are good in one common wealth / are not good in an other / as those which are good in a Monarchie / are not good in Aristocratie / and those which are good in Aristocratie / are not good in a populare state. But that can not be sayde of the churche / whych is but one and vniforme / and hathe the same lawes and forme of gouernment throughout the worlde.

In common wealths also there are conuersions / one forme being changed into an other / whych can not be in the true church of God. As for Erasmus au∣thoritye whych sayeth that Titus was an archbyshop / I haue answeared to it. And whereas Chrysostome sayeth / that the iudgement of many byshops was committed to Titus / I haue declared in what sorte that is to be vnderstanded / and yet vpon those words / the byshop can hardly conclude / that whych he doth: that Titus had the gouernment of many byshops. For it is one thing to say / the iudgement of many was committed vnto Titus / and an other thyng to say / that he had the gouernement of many.

The answer of the byshop vnto the fourth supposed reason / pertaineth vn∣to an other question / that is whether ecclesiasticall persons / ought to exercise ciuil iurisdiction / whervnto I will answer by Gods grace / when I come to speake vpon occasion of M. Doctors boke of that question. In the meane season I wil desire the reader to consider / what weake grounds the archbyshop and archdea∣con stand vpon / seeing that the byshop of Sarum / being so learned a man / and of so great reading / coulde say no more in their defence / whych notwythstanding in the controuersies agaynst D. Harding / is so pithy and so plentifull.

Now I haue shewed how little those things whych M. doctor bringeth / make for proufe of that wherfore he alledgeth them: I will for the better vnder∣standing of the reader / set downe what were y^e causes why the archbishops were first ordained / and what were their prerogatiues / and preheminēces before other byshops / and the estate also of the old byshops / whych liued in those times / wher∣in althoughe there were great corruptions / yet the church was in some tollerable estate / to the entent it may appeare / partly how little nede we haue of them now / and partly also howe greate difference there is betweene oures and them. Of the names of Metropolitane / it hath bene spoken / howe that he shoulde not be called the cheefe of priests / or the high priest / or byshop of byshops: nowe I will sette downe hys office and power whych he had / more then the byshops.

In the councell of Antioche it appeareth / that the byshop of the metropo∣litane

seate / called Synodes / & propounded the matters whych were to be hand∣led. &c. the archbyshop doth not nowe call Synodes / but the Prince dothe / for as much as there is no conuocation wythout a parliament / & he doth not propound the matters / and gather the voyces / but an other chosen / whych is called prolo∣cutor / therfore in y^e respect that an archb. & metropolitane was first ordained / we haue no neede of an archb. or metropolitane. Againe / an other cause also appea∣reth there / whych was to see that the byshoppes kepte them selues wythin their owne dioceses / and brake not into an others diocese. But first this may be done wythout an archbyshop / and then it is not done of the archb. (hym selfe geuing li∣cences vnto the wandring ministers to go throughout not so few as a dosen dio∣ceses) therefore the office of an archb. is not necessarye in thys respecte / and if it were / yet it must be other then it is nowe.

Againe / the cause whye the metropolitane differed from the rest / and whye the calling of the Synode was geuen to hym / as it appeareth in the same coūcel / was for that the greatest concourse was to that place / and most assembly of men / whervnto also may be added / for that there was the best commodity of lodging & of vitailing / and for that / as it appeareth in other councels / it was the place and seate of the Empire. But wyth vs neyther the greatest concourse nor assemblye of men / nor the greatest commodity of lodging and vitailing / neyther yet the seate of the kingdome is in the metropolitane city / therefore wyth vs there is no suche cause of a metropolitane or archbyshop.

In the councel of Carthage / holden in Cyprians time / it appeareth that no byshop had authority ouer an other / to compell an other / or to condemne an other / but euery byshop was left at hys owne liberty to answer vnto God / and to make hys accompt vnto Christ: and if any thing were done against any bishop / it was done by the consent of all the byshops in the prouince / or as many as coulde con∣ueniently assemble. Therefore Cyprian / whych was the metropolitane byshop / had then no authoritye ouer the rest / and yet then (there being no christian magi∣strate / whych woulde punishe the disorders whych were committed of the chri∣stian byshops) there was greatest neede / that there shoulde haue bene some one / whych might haue had the correction of the rest. If therefore when there was moste neede of thys absolute authoritie / there neyther was / nor myght be anye suche / it followeth that nowe we haue a Christian magistrate / whych maye and oughte to punishe the disorders of all Ecclesiasticall persons / and may and ought to call them to accoumpt for their faultes / that there shoulde be no suche neede of an archbyshop.

The moderation of their authority in the auncient times may appeare / first by a Canon whych is falsly geuen to the apostles / being as it is like a Canon of the councell of Antioche / wherin although it ordaineth one primate in euery na∣tion ouer the rest / and will not suffer any great matter to be done wythout him / as also will not suffer him to do any thing wythout the rest / yet euery B. might do that / whych appertained vnto hys own parish / wythout hym / and he nothing to do wyth hym in it. But as it seemeth / the meaning of the Canon was / that if there were any waighty matter to be concluded for all the churches in the natiō / then the byshops of euery parish should not enterprise any thing without calling hym to counsell. Now we see that the archb. medleth with that whych euery by∣shop doth in hys owne diocese / and hath hys visitations for that purpose / & will take any matter out of their hands / concludeth also of diuers matters / neuer ma∣king the byshops once priuy to hys doings.

Higinus / or as some thincke Pelagius (I speake heere as Platina repor∣teth not thincking that in Higinus time / there was any Metropolitane) ordai∣ned that no Metropolitane should condemne any byshop / onles the matter were first bothe harde and discussed by the byshoppes of that prouince / at what time /

and after a great while / a bishop was the same we cal a minister. Now the arch∣byshop will wythout any further assistance or discussion by others suspend hym / and in the ende also throwe him oute of hys charge / and if he haue the same au∣thority ouer a byshop / as a byshop ouer the minister (as it is sayd) he may do the like vnto hym also.

The councell of Antioche ordained / that if the voyces of the byshops were euen / and that if halfe did condemne hym / and halfe cleare hym / that then the me∣tropolitane byshop shoulde call of the nexte prouince some other byshops / whych should make an end of the controuersy. Wherby appeareth that the Metropoli∣tane had so small authority and power ouer and aboue the rest / that he had not so much as the casting voyce / when bothe sides were euen / and therefore it appea∣reth / that besides the names of metropolitane / there was little or no resemblance betweene those that were then / and those whych be now.

Now / to consider how the byshops whych are now / differ from the byshops whych were in times past / I must call to thy remembrance (gentle reader) that whych I haue spoken before / which was that then there was / as appeareth out of Cyprian and Ierome / and others / one byshop in euery parishe or congregati∣on: nowe one is ouer a thousande / then euery byshop had a seuerall church where he preached and ministred the sacraments: nowe he hath none / then he ruled that one churche (as I shewed oute of Ierome) in common wyth the Elders of the same: nowe he ruleth a thousande by hym selfe / shutting oute the ministers / to whome the rule and gouernement belongeth / then he ordained not any minister of the churche / except he were first chosen by the presbiterie, and approued by the people of that place wherevnto he was ordained: nowe he ordaineth where there is no place voyde / and of hys priuate authority / wythout either choise or appro∣bation of presbyterie or people: then he excommunicated not / nor receiued the ex∣cōmunicated / but by sentences of the eldership / and consent of the people / as shall appeare afterward: nowe he dothe bothe.

And thus you see that contrary to the woorde of God / he hathe gotten into hys owne hande / and pulled to him selfe / bothe the preheminence of the other mi∣nisters / and the liberties of the church / whych God by his word had geuen. And as for the offices wherein there is any laboure or trauaile / those they haue tur∣ned vnto the other ministers / as for example in times past it was not lawfull for hym that was then an elder / to preache or minister the sacraments in the presence of the byshop / because the bishop him selfe should do it / and now those which they call elders / may preach and minister the sacraments by the byshops good licence / although he be present.

Now if you will also consider how much the Lordship / pompe / and stateli∣nes of the byshops in our dayes / differ from the simplicity of them in times past / I will geue you also a taste thereof / if first of all I shewe the beginning / or as it were the fountaine wherevpon the pompe grewe / whych was / when in steade of hauing a byshop in euery parishe and congregation / they began to make a bishop of a whole diocese / and of a thousand congregations.

In an epistle of ʒacharie vnto Pope Boniface / it is thus wrytten: it hath bene oftentimes decreed / that there shoulde not be a byshop appoynted in euerye village or little citie / least they should waxe vile through the multitude: whereby it bothe appeareth / that there was wonte to be a byshop in euery parishe / and vp∣on howe corrupte and euill consideration one byshoppe was sette ouer a whole diocese. No doubte those that were authoures of thys / had learned too well our olde prouerb / the fewer the better cheare / but the more byshops the meryer it had bene wyth Gods people. And they might wyth as good reason hinder the sunne from shining in al places / & the raine from falling vpon al grounds / for feare they should not be set by / being common / as to bring in such a wicked decree / wherby

vnder pretence of deliuering the byshop from contempt / they sought nothing else but an ambitious and stately Lordshyp ouer those whych had not that title of bi∣shop that they had / althoughe they did the office of a byshop better then they dyd. And what intollerable presumption is thys / to chaunge the institution of God / as though he whych ordained not one only / but some nomber more or les of by∣shops in euery church / did not sufficiently foresee / that the multitude and plentye of byshops coulde breede no contempt of the office. And it may be as well ordai∣ned that the children of pore men shoulde not call them that begate them / fathers and mothers / but only the childrē of the rich / and of noble / least that if euery man that hathe children / shoulde be called a father / fathers should be sette nothyng by. And heere let vs obserue by what degrees and staires Sathan lifted the childe of perdition vnto that proude title of vniuersall byshop. First / where the Lorde did ordaine that there shoulde be diuers pastors / elders / or byshops in euery con∣gregation / Sathan wrought first that there should be but one in euery churche: thys was no doubt the first step. Afterwardes he pushed further / and stirred vp diuers not to content them selues to be byshops of one church / but to desire to be byshops of a diocese / whervnto although it seemeth that there was resistance (in that it is sayd that it was decreed often) yet in the end this wicked attempt pre∣uailed / and thys was an other step. Then were there archbishops of whole pro∣uinces / whych was the third stayer vnto the seat of antichriste. Afterwards they were Patriarks of one of the .iiij. corners of the whole world / the whole church being assigned to the iurisdiction of fower / that is to saye of the Romaine / Con∣stantinopolitane / Antiochene / and Alexandrine byshops. And these fower stay∣ers being layd of Sathan / there was but an easy stride for the B. of Rome / into that chaire of pestilence / wherin he nowe sitteth. Hauing now showed howe thys Lordly estate of the byshop began / and vpon what a rotten ground it is builded / I come to shew how farre the byshops in our time are / for their pompe and out∣ward statelines / degenerated from the byshops of elder times.

And heere I call to remembraunce / that whych was spoken of the poore estate of Basile and Theodorete: and if M. Doctor will say (as he doth in deede in a certaine place) that thē was a time of persecution / and this is a time of peace: it is easely answeared / that although Basill were vnder persecution / yet Theo∣dorete liued vnder good emperors. But that shall appeare better by the Canons / whych were rules geuen for the byshops to frame them selues by.

In the. 4. councell of Carthage it is decreed / that the byshops should haue a little house neare vnto the church: what is thys compared wyth so many faire large houses / and wyth the princely palace of a byshop? And in the same councel it is decreed that he shoulde haue the furniture and stuffe of hys house after the commen sorte / and that hys table and diet should be pore / and that he should get him estimation by faithfulnes and good conuersation.

And in an other councell / that the byshops shoulde not giue them selues to feastes / but be content wyth a little meate. Let these byshops be compared wyth oures / whose chambers shine wyth gilt / whose walles are hanged wyth clothes of Auris / whose cupbordes are loden wyth plate / whose tables and diets are fur∣nished wyth multitude and diuersity of dishes / whose daily dinners are feastes: Let them I say be compared together / and they shall be founde so vnlike / that if those olde byshops were aliue / they wold not know each other. For they would thinke that oures were princes / and oures woulde thinke that they were some hedge priests / not worthy of their acquaintance or fellowshyp.

In the same councell of Carthage / it was decreed / that no byshop sitting in any place / should suffer any minister or elder to stand. Nowe I will report me to themselues how thys is kept / and to the pore ministers whych haue to do with them / and come before them.

The byshops in times past had no tayle nor trayne of men after them / and thought it a slaunder to the gospell to haue a number of men before and behynde them. And therefore is Paulus Sam of atenus noted as one that brought relygion into hatred / and as one that seemed to take delight rather to be a captaine of two hundreth / then a byshoppe / because he had gotten him a sort of seruing men to waight on hym. An other example not vnlyke and likewyse reprehended is in Ruffine of one Gregory a byshop. Now in our dayes it is thought a commenda∣tion to the byshop / a credite to the gospell / if a byshop haue 30. 40. 60. or moe wayting of hym / some before some behynde / whereof three partes of them (set a∣part the carying of a dishe vnto the table) haue no honest or profitable calling to occupy themselues in two houres of the day / to y^e filling of the church and commō¦wealth also with all kynde of disorders and greater incommodities / then I minde to speake of / because it is not my purpose.

And heere I will note an other cause / which brought in this pompe and princely estate of byshoppes / wherin although I will say more in a worde for the pompeous estate / then M. Doctor hath done in all hys treatise / yet I will shew that although it were more tollerable at the first / now it is by no meanes to be borne with. * In the ecclesiasticall story we read that the inscriptions of dyuers epystles sent vnto byshops were timiotatois kyriois. We read also of aspasticon oicon house of salutations / which Ambrose byshop of Millain had. As for the ti∣tle of (most honorable Lordes) it was not so great nor so stately as the name of a Lord or knight in our country / for all those that know the maner of the speach of the Grecians do well vnderstand / how they vsed to call euery one of any meane countenaunce in the common wealth where he lyued kyrion / that is Lorde / so we see also the Euangelistes vse the worde Kyrios to note a meane person as when Mary in the. 20. of Iohn / thinking that our sauiour Christ had bene the keper of the garden calleth hym (Kyrion). So likewise in Fraunce they call euery one that is gentilman / or hath any honest place Monseur, and so they will say also fa∣inng your honour. Now we know thys word (Lord) in our countrey is vsed o∣therwise / to note some great personage / eyther by reason of birth or by reason of some high dignitie in the common wealth / which he occupyeth: and therfore those titles although they were somewhat excessiue / yet were they nothing so swelling and stately as oures are.

And as touching Ambrose house / albeit the word doth not employ so great gorgeousnes nor magnificence of an house as the palaces and other magnificall buildinges of our byshoppes: yet the cause whereupon thys rose / doth more ex∣cuse Ambrose / who being taken from great wealth and gouernment in the com∣mon wealth / geuing ouer hys office / dyd retayne hys house and that which hee had gotten.

But our byshops doe maynteyne thys pompe and excesse / of the charges of the church / with whose goodes a great number of idle loytering seruing men are mayntayned / which ought to be bestowed vpon the ministers / which want neces∣sary finding for their families / and vpon the poore / and mayntenance of the vni∣uersities. As for these riotous expences of the church goodes / when many other mynisters want / and of making great dynners and entertayning great Lordes and maiestrates / and of the answere to them that say they do helpe the church by thys meanes / I will referre the reader to that which Ierome wryteth in a cer∣tayne place where thys is handled more at large. By thys which I haue cyted it appeareth / what was one cause of thys excesse and stately pompe of the by∣shops / namely that certeine noble and rich men / being chosen to the ministerie and lyuing somewhat like vnto the former estates wherein they were before / others also assayed to be like vnto them: as we see in that poynt the nature of man is too ready to follow / if they see any example before theyr eyes. But there is no

reason because Ambrose and such lyke dyd so / therefore our byshops shoulde do it of the churches costes. Nor because Ambrose and such like dyd tary in their trim houses which they had built them selues of theyr owne charge before they were byshops / that therefore they shuld come out of theyr chambers or narow houses / into courtes and palaces builded of the churches costes.

An other reason of thys pompe and statelynes of the byshoppes was / that which almost brought in all poyson and popishe corruption into the church / and that is a foolish emulation of the maners and fashions of the Idolatrous nati∣ons. For as thys was the craft of sathan to draw away the Israelites from the true seruice of God / by theyr fond desire they had to conforme them selues to the fashyons of the gentiles: so to punish vnthankefull receiuing of the gospell / and to fulfill the Prophesies touching the man of sinne / the Lord suffered those that pro∣fessed Christ to corrupt theyr wayes by the same sleyght of the Deuill.

Galerianus Maximinus the Emperor to the end that he myght promote the Idolatry and superstition whereunto he was addicted / chose of the choysest ma∣gistrates to be priestes / and that they myght be in great estimation gaue eche of them a trayne of men to follow them. And the christians and christian Empe∣rours / thinking that that would promote the christian relygion that promoted superstition / and not remembring that it is often times abhomynable before God / which is esteemed in the eyes of men / endeuoured to make theyr byshops encoun∣ter and match with those Idolatrous priestes / and to cause that they should not be inferior to them in wealth and outward pompe. And therfore I conclude that seing the causes and fountaynes from whence thys pompe and statelynes of by∣shops haue come / are so corrupt and naught / the thing it selfe which hath rysen of such causes can not be good.

And thus will I make an end / leauing to the consideration and indifferent waying of the indifferent reader / how true it is that I haue before propounded / that our Archbyshops / Metropolitanes / Archdeacons / Byshops / haue besides the names almost nothing common with those which haue bene in elder tymes / before the sunne of the gospell began to be maruellously darkned / by the stincking mistes which the deuill sent forth out of the bottomles pit to blynde the eyes of men / that they shoulde not see the shame and nakednes of that purpled whore / which in the person of the cleargy / long before she gat into her seate prepared her selfe by paynting her wrythen face / with the couloures of these gorgeous titles and with the shew of magnifycall and worldly pompe. For the deuill knew well enough / that if he should haue sette vp one only byshoppe in that seate of perditi∣on / and left all the rest in that simplicitie wherein God had appoynted them / that hys eldest sonne shoulde neyther haue had any way to gette into that / and when he had gotten it / yet being as it were an owle amongst a sort of birdes / shoulde haue bene quickly discouered.

But I haue done / only thys I admonishe the reader that I doe not allow of all those thinges which I before alleaged in the comparison betwene our Archbyshoppes and the Archbyshops of olde tyme / or our byshoppes and theirs. Only my entent is to shew that although there were corruptions / yet in respect of ours they be much more tollerable: and that it might appeare how smale cause there is that they should alleage theyr examples to confirme the Archbyshops and Byshops that now are.

Concerning the offices of commissionership and how vnmeete it is that mi∣misters of the worde should exercise them / and how that the worde of God doth not permitte any such confusion of offices / there shalbe by Gods grace spoken of it afterwarde.

To your answere also vnto the places of S. Mathew and Luke / the reply is made before. The place of the fourthe of the first to the Corinthyans / is well

alledged / for it teacheth a moderate estymation of the mynisters / and a meane be∣twene the contempt and excessiue estymation / neyther can there be any redyer way to breede that disorder which was amongst the Corinthyans / as to say I holde of such a one / and I of such a one / and I of such an other / then to sette vp cer∣tayne mynisters in so hyghe Titles and great shew of worldly honoure. For so commeth it to passe / that the people will saye / I beleeue my Lord / and my Lord archbyshoppe / whatsoeuer oure parson say / for they bee wyse men and learned / as wee see it came to passe amongst the Corrinthyans. For the Apostles be∣cause they hadde a shewe and outwarde pompe of speache / they caryed away the people. For althoughe Saynt Paule sayeth that some sayde / I holde of Paule / I holde of Apollo / I of Cephas / yet as it appeareth in an other place / they helde one of thys braue eloquent teacher / an other of that. For hee trans∣lated these speaches vnto hym and hys fellowes by a fygure. All that rule is ty∣rannycall / whiche is not lawfull / and is more then it oughte to bee / and therfore the place of Saynt Peter is fitly alleaged / whereof also I haue spoken some thing before.

You are you say of Hemingius mynde / and thincke that thys opynion smel∣leth of Anabaptisme / I haue shewed how you haue depraued and corrupted He∣mingius / and desire you to shew some better reason of your opynion / autos ephe, will not suffice vs. You say / that if we had once obtayned equalitie amongst the cleargie / we would attempt it in the laitie.

In what starre doe you see that Maister Doctor? Moyses sayth / that if a man speake of a thing to come / and it come not to passe as he hath spoken / that that man is a false Prophet / if your prophesie come not to passe / you know your iudgement already out of Moyses.

The Pharisies when our sauiour Christ inueighed agaynst their ambyti∣on / accused hym that he was no freende to Cesar / and went about to discredite hym with the cyuill Magistrate / you shall apply it your selfe / you will needes make the Archbyshoppe. &c. neyghboures vnto the cyuill Magistrates / and yet they almost dwell as farre a sonder as Rome and Ierusalem / and as Syon and S. Peters Church there / so that the house of the archbyshoppe may bee burnt sticke and stone / when not so much as the smoke shall approche the house of the cyuill magistrate.

In the. 116. page / for the authoritie of the archbyshoppe / is alleaged the nynthe Canon of the Councell of Antioch / which I haue before alleaged / to proue how farre different the authoritie of the Metropolitane in those times was from that which is now. For there the Councell sheweth that euery Byshoppe in hys Diocese / hath the ordering of all matters within the circuite thereof / and therfore the meaning of the Councell to bee / that if there be any affaires that touche the whole Churche many lande / that the Byshoppes shoulde doe nothing without making the Metropolitane priuy / as also the Metropolitane myght doe nothing without making the other Byshops a counsell of that which he attempted / which maister Doctor doth cleane leaue out.

And if thys authoritie which the councell geueth to the Metropolitane / be∣ing nothing so excessiue as y^e authorytie of our Metropolitanes now / had not bene ouer much / or had bene iustifiable / what needed men father thys Canon (which was ordayned in thys councell) of the Apostles / for the seeking falsly of the name of the Apostles / to geue creadite vnto thys Canon / doth cary with it a note of e∣uill and of shame / which they woulde haue couered as it were with the garment of the Apostles authoritie.

And in the hundreth twentie and three page / to that which Maister Bucer sayeth / that in the Churches there hath bene one which hath beene cheefe ouer the rest of the mynisters / if he meane one cheefe in euery particulare churche / or

one cheefe ouer the mynisters of dyuers churches meeting at one Synode / and cheefe for the time / and for such respectes as I haue before shewed / then I am of that mynde which he is: And if he meane any other cheefe / or after any other sort / I deny that any such cheefety was from the Apostles tymes / or that any suche cheefetie pleaseth the holye ghoste / whereof I haue before shewed the proufes.

And wheras M. Bucer seemeth to allow / that the name of a byshop / which the holy ghost expresly geueth to all the ministers of the word indifferently / was appropriated to certen cheefe gouernoures of the church / I haue before shewed by dyuers reasons / how that was not done without great presumption and ma∣nifest daunger / and in the end great hurt to the church.

And if M. Doctor delyght thus to oppose mens authoritie to the authoritie of the holy ghost / and to the reasons which are grounded out of the scripture / M. Caluin doth openly misselyke of the making of that name proper and peculiar to certayne / which the holy ghost maketh common to moe. And whereas of M. Caluines wordes / which sayth that there be degrees of honor in the mynistery / M. Doctor would gather an archbyshop / if he had vnderstanded that an Apostle is aboue an Euangelist / an Euangelist aboue a pastor / a pastor aboue a doctor / and he aboue an elder that ruleth only / he needed neuer to haue gone to the popish Hierarchie / to seeke hys dyuersities of degrees / which he myght haue founde in S. Paule. And whereas vpon M. Caluines words / which sayeth that Paule was one of the cheefe amongst the Apostles / he would seeme to conclude an arch∣byshop amongst the byshops / he should haue remembred / that S. Paules cheef∣tie amongst the Apostles / consisted not in hauing any authoritie or domynion o∣uer the rest / but in labouring and suffering more then the rest / and in giftes more excellent then the rest.

Now where as hee sayeth / that we desire to pull the rule from others / that the rule myght be in oure handes / and we myght doe what we list / and that we seeke to wythdraw oure selues from controlement of Prince / and Byshoppe / and all. Firste / hee may learne if hee will / that wee desire no other authoritie then that / which is to the edifying of the church / and which is grounded of the word of God: which if any mynister shall abuse to hys gayne or ambytion / then he ought to abyde not only the controlement of the other mynisters / yea of the bre∣thren / but also further the punishment of the Magistrates according to the quan∣titie of the faulte.

And seeing you charge the brethren so sore / you must be put in remembrance / that thys vnreasonable authoritie ouer the rest of the mynisters and clergy / came to the byshops and archbyshops / when as the Pope dyd exempt hys shauelinges from the obedience / subiection / and iurisdiction of the Princes: now therfore that we be ready to geue that subiection vnto the Prince / and offer our selues to the Princes correction in things wherein we shall doe a misse / doe you thincke it an vnreasonable thing / that we desire to bee disburdened of the byshops and archby∣shops yoke / which the Pope hath layde vpon our neckes?

And in the. 207. page vnto the middest of the 214. page / thys matter is a∣gayne handled / where first M. Doctor would draw the place of Galathians the second / to proue an archbyshop / and that by a false translation / for hoi dokountes / which is (they that seemed or appeared) he hath translated (they y^e are the cheefe) & although the place of the Galathians may be thought of some not so pregnant / nor so full agaynst the archbyshop / yet all must needes confesse / that it maketh more against him then for him. For S. Paules purpose is to proue there / that he was not inferioure to any of the Apostles / & bringeth one argument thereof / that he had not his gospel from them / but from Christ immediatly / & therfore if the a∣postles that were estemed most of / and supposed by the Galathians & others to be

the cheefe / had no superioritie ouer S. Paule / but were equall wyth hym / it fol∣loweth that there was none that had rule ouer the rest. And if there needed no one of the Apostles to be ruler ouer the rest / there seemeth to be no neede / that one byshoppe should rule ouer the rest. But that I run not backe to that I haue handled before / I will not heere so much vrge the place / as I will not doe also that of the Hebrues which followeth / and yet the argument is stronger / then that M. Doctor coulde answere. For if the wryter to the Hebrues / doe proue our sauiour Christes vocation to be iust and lawfull / because hys calling was contayned in the scriptures / as appeareth in the 5. and 6. verse / then it followeth that the calling of the archbishop which is not comprehended there / is neither iust nor lawfull. For that no man (sayth the apostle) taketh that honour vnto hym selfe / but he that is called of God. &c. But I say / hauing before sufficiently spo∣ken of the reasons which ouerthrow the archbyshoppe / I will let passe these and other places / answearing only that which M. Doctor bringeth for the establish∣ment of them. He sayth therefore afterwarde / that although one man be not able to be byshop ouer all the church / yet he may be byshop ouer a whole diocese / or of a prouince. Now if I wold say the one is as impossible as the other / & for proofe thereof alleage that which the Philosophers say / that as there are no degrees in that which is infinite / so that of thinges which are infinite / one thing can not be more infinite then an other / so there are no degrees in impossibilitie / that of thinges which are impossible / one thyng shoulde bee more impossible then an o∣ther: If I shoulde thus reason / I thincke I shoulde putte you to some payne. But I will not draw the reader to suche thorney and subtile questyons / it is enough for vs / that the one and the other be impossible / although one shoulde bee more impossible then the other. And that it is impossible for one man to bee by∣shoppe ouer a whole prouince / or ouer a whole dyocese / I leaue it to bee consi∣dered of that which is before sayde in the discription of the office of a byshoppe / pastor / or minister / where I speake of the necessitie of the residence of the byshop in hys church.

As a Prince may rule a whole realme / such as Fraunce / or Englande / so may he rule the whole world by officers and magistrates appoynted vnderneath hym: And there haue bene dyuers Princes / which haue had as many landes vnder their power / as the Pope hath had churches / and although it be somewhat incōuenient / yet I know not why they might not so haue / comming lawfully by them. Now I woulde gladly heare whether you woulde say the same of a by∣shoppe / and if you dare not / then why doe you bring the similitude of the gouern∣ment of a Prince ouer a lande / to proue that an archbyshop may be ouer a whole prouince. M. Doctor dare boldly say / that there may be one byshop ouer a whole prouince / but he dare not say that there may be a byshop ouer the whole Church. But what better warrant for the one / then for the other? Agayne / if the whole church be in one prouince or in one realme / which hath bene / and is not impossi∣ble to be agayne / if there may be now one byshop ouer a realme or prouince / then there may be one byshop ouer all the church / so that in trauayling with an arch∣byshop / he hath brought forth a Pope.

But he sayth that an archbyshop hath not the charge of gouernment ouer the whole prouince generally / but in cases exempted / & so may doe it more easely: But he should haue remembred / that he assigned before the offices of archbyshop & byshop / to be in all those things / which other ministers are / & that besides those offices / he geueth them particulare charges. So that where the office of the mi∣nister is but to preach / pray / & minister the sacraments in hys parish / the office of archbyshop & bishop / is to do the same / and more in the whole prounice or diocese. And so it followeth that it is easyer for a minister to discharge his duetie in hys parish / then for an archbyshop or byshop to discharge their dueties in any one pa∣rishe

of their prouince or diocese. For they haue in euery parish more to doe / and greater charge / then the mynister of the paryshe hath / then much lesse are they a∣ble to doe their dueties in all the paryshes of theyr prouinces or dyocese.

After M. Doctor translateth out of M. Caluin / the papistes reasons for the supremacy of the Pope / and M. Caluines solutions. For what purpose hee knoweth / I can not tell / vnles it be to blot paper / I know not what he shoulde meane / and the quarell also which he picketh / to translate thys place / is yet more strange. For he sayth that the authors of the admonition / borowed their argu∣mentes from the papistes / when the contrary is true / that they vse the reasons which they of the gospell vse agaynst the supremacy of the pope / to ouerthrow the archbyshoppe. And maister Doctor doth vse reasons to defende the archby∣shop / which the papistes vse to mayntayne the Pope. For M. Doctor woulde proue / that for because there is one king ouer a realme / therefore there may be one byshop ouer a prouince / and the papistes vse the same reason to proue the Pope to be a byshop of the whole church. Shew now one reason / that the authors of the admonition brought of the papistes / to proue that there should be no archby∣shop. But now I perceiue hys meaning / and that is / that he thought to gette some comfort for the archbishop in M. Caluins solutions made vnto the papistes reasons for the supremacy: and therfore he hath haled and pulled in as it were by the shulders / thys disputation betwene the protestants and the papistes touching the supremacy. And what is it that M. Caluin sayth for the archbyshop? It hath bene before shewed / what his iudgement was touching hauing one mynister o∣uer all the mynisters of a prouince / and that he doth simply condemne it in hys commentary vpon the first chap. of the Phillippians. Now let it be considered / whether in these sentences he hath sayd any thing against hym selfe. The papistes obiect that for so much as there was one high priest in Iury ouer all the church / therfore there should be one byshop ouer all. To whom M. Caluin answeareth / that the reason followeth not: for sayth he / there is no reason to extend that to all the world / which was profitable in one nation. Heereupon M. Doctor would conclude that M. Caluine allowath one archbyshop ouer a whole prouince.

If one going about to proue that he may haue as many wiues as hee list / woulde alledge Iacob for an Example which had two wyues: and Maister Doctor should answere and say / that although hee myght haue two wyues / yet it followeth not that he may haue as many as he list / would not Maister Doctor thinke that he had great iniurye / if a man should conclude of these wordes / that hys opynion is that a man may haue two wyues? I thinke that he would sup∣pose that he had great wrong / and yet thus would he conclude of Maister Cal∣uines wordes in thys first sentence / whereas in deede M. Caluine declareth a little after / a speciall reason why there was but one high priest in the whole land of Iury / which is because he was a figure of Christ / and that therby shuld be shadowed out hys sole meditation betwene God & his church. And therefore sheweth y^e forsomuch as there is none to represent or figure our sauiour Christ / that his iudgement is / that as there shoulde be no one ouer all the churches / so should there be no one ouer any nation. To the papistes obiecting for the supre∣macy / that S. Peter was the prince & cheefe of the apostles / M. Caluin answe∣reth / first by denying that Peter was so / and bringeth many places to proue y^t he was equall to the other apostles. Afterward he sayth / although it be graunted / that Peter was cheefe / yet followeth it not because one may beare rule ouer twelue being but a few in number / that therefore one may rule ouer an hundreth thousand / & that it followeth not / that that which is good amongst a few / is forth with good in all the world. Now let all men iudge / with what conscience & trust / M. Doct. cyteth M. Caluin / for to proue the office of the archbyshop. But I maruell that he could not also see that / which M. Caluin wryteth in the next sen∣tence

almost / where he sayth that Christ is only the head of the church / and that the church doth cleaue one to an other vnder his domynion: but by what meanes? according (sayth he) to the order and forme of pollicy which he hath prescribed / but he hath prescribed no such forme of pollicy / that one byshop should be ouer all the mynisters and churches in a whole diocese / or one archbyshop ouer all the mi∣nisters and churches in a whole prouince / therefore thys forme of pollicy which is by archbyshops / and such byshops as we haue / is not the meanes to knitte vs one to an other in vnitie vnder the domynion of Christ. Touching the titles and names of honor which are geuen to the Ecclesiasticall persones with vs / and how that princes and cyuill magistrates may and ought to haue the title / which can not be geuen to the mynisters / I haue spoken before / and therefore of archby∣shops / archdeacons / and the lord byshops thus farre.

Notes

• 1. Epist. 5. 4. Heb. 13. 20. Acts. 3. 15. Acts. 5. 31. Heb. 12. 2.
• Tertull lib. de pudicitia. Cypr. lib. 2. Epist. 7. Ierome in hys Epistles to Augustin.
• Iohn. 1. 25.
• Gen. 6. 14. 22.
• Exod. 26. Exod. 31. 3. 6.
• Exo. 39. 42.
• 1. Reg. 3. 12. 1. Chro. 28. 11. &c. 19. 1. Reg. 6. 2. Chro. 3. 4. 5. Ezech. 40.
• Iohn. 4. 25.
• 4. Eph. 11. 12.
• 1. Cor. 12. 28.
• 1. Cor. 3. 10.
• Rom. 12. 4. 5.
• 1. Cor. 12. 28. Collos. 2. 19.
• 1. Tim. 5. 17.
• Ephe. 4. 11. 1. Cor. 12. 28.
• 4. Phil. 3. Tert. de pre∣scrip. aduersus heret.
• In the reply to M. Harding fol. 7.
• Lib. 3. c. 3.
• Leuit. 19. 27. Deu. 22. 11. 12 Leuit. 11.
• Deut. 14. Ephe. 2. 14.
• Esay. 2. 3.
• 5. Math. 22. 9. Iohn. 22.
• Act. 15. 29.
• Eus. 3. Lib. 4. Eus. 4. Lib. 23.
• vincen. 10. lib. c. 124. Nice. 4. li. ca. 38.
• 2. Lib. 23. cap. 3. Lib. 22,
• 4. Lib. 63.
• Act. 11. 26.
• Eus. 3. 23.
• 1. Lib. 8. cap.
• 1. lib. 6. ca.
• 1. lib. offic. cap. 50.
• Sozo. 6. l. c. 16.
• Conc. Cartha. cap. 39.
• Concil. Tom. 2. 1. c. 6.
• (a)

  Sozo. 7. 19.
• (b)

  Concil. Vrban. Sozom. 7. lib. c. 19.
• (c)

  Ierom to E∣uagr.
• (d)

  Conc. Nic. can. 14. and after Ruff. can. 20.
• (e)

  Ieron. ad Euag. August. quest. noui & veteris testa. q. 101.
• Eus. 3. lib. 32.
• Lib. Stromat. somewhat after the beginning. 7. lib. 11. ca.
• 4. lib. 9. epist.
• 2. Lib. ep. 1.
• 4. Lib. ep. 9.
• Lib. 1. 4. ep.
• 3. Lib. ep. 13.
• Lib. 3. 13. ep.
• In hys first booke. 4. arti∣cle / and in dy∣ansion. 5.
• First booke a∣gainste Dor∣man / and. 25. leafe.
• 1. Tom. fol. ••▪
• Contra prax.
• Math. 15. 3.
• De veland virg.
• Act. 15. 2.
• Acts. 15. 23.
• 1. Cor. 11. 16. 1. Cor. 14. 33.
• 1. Cor. 14. 29.
• Ephes. 4. 11.
• Decret. part. 2. c. 9. q. 3. & can. Apost. 33. & a∣libi passim.
• Lib. 5. 26. De dignitate sacerdotali. 1. Rom. 8.
• 1. Act. 15.
• Act. 15. 13.
• Act. 21. 20.
• 1. Tim. 4. 8. 1:
• Ad quod vult Deum.
• 1. Tim. 5. 17.
• Hebru. 7.
• 1. Lib. 3. cap.
• As it appea∣reth by diuers epistles of his. Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 3. & 4.
• 3. hom. act. 6.
• In the 1. act. In the same act.
• Chap. 1.
• c. 10. 3. clas. lib. Enchirid. where also a∣mong the po∣pish orders / he reckneth the archb.
• Pag. 78. of the boke of Act.
• 1. Tom. Act. pag. 96.
• Iudges. 5. 14.
• 1. Sam. 19. 19 2. reg. 2. 3. 5. 7.
• Actes. 6. 9.
• 2. Chro. 29. 25
• Chap. 9.
• Chap. 9.
• 34. canon.
• Platina cap. Higin.
• Canon. 17.
• Hispal. Con∣cil. can. 7.
• Concil. tom. 3. epi. zach. papae ad Bonif.
• 14. canon. It calleth it hospitiolum. 15. canon.
• 5. canon. Con∣cil. Tyronensis.
• 34. canon.
• Euseb. lib. 7. c. 30.
• Ruf. 1. lib. cap. 23.
• Theo. li. 5. c. 8.
• Li. eodem. cap. 18.
• Ad nepotian•• monachum.
• Euseb. 8. cap. 15
• Luke. 16. 15.
• 1. Cor. 4. 6.
• Deut. 18. 22.
• Luk. 23. 2.